


Intersecting Lines

by ZuviosGemini



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: First Time Sex, M/M, Slave coding, Sticky Sex, Suicidal Thoughts, a bit of gore/violence, actual abuse, mentions of abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-22
Updated: 2014-05-22
Packaged: 2018-01-26 03:03:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 25,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1672322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZuviosGemini/pseuds/ZuviosGemini
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bumblebee takes down Blitzwing by himself in a fight using a trick he saw Megatron use once, but what he doesn't know is that the technique he used has more meaning than he originally thought, and he soon finds himself falling into the strangest (and most unexpected) relationship with Blitzwing that he's ever encountered. But is that a good thing, or a bad thing?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intersecting Lines

**Author's Note:**

  * For [herzspalter](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=herzspalter).



> I know a lot of people write Megatron hating slave coding, and I totally agree with that notion because wow no, but I just couldn’t resist having him use it for the sake of this fic.
> 
> I never was really able to get a reading on how much bigger Blitzwing is than Bumblebee (a good bit bigger, that much was obvious), so their size difference in this fic is half speculation and half headcanon. Also, a few little things about Blitzwing come from the fabulous art made by herzspalter on Tumblr. (GO CHECK HER COMICS OUT SERIOUSLY. THE WHOLE REASON I STARTED SHIPPING IT WAS BECAUSE OF HER.)
> 
> Lots of my headcanons in here too, one of them being that IcyBlitz is a sarcastic little shit, and not completely flat affected. I can’t be the only one who sees how potentially deadpan he could have been. THUS I have made it so in my fic. One last note: I tweaked the canon time line of Blitzwing's backstory, but everything else is sound.
> 
> ENJOY~ Comments and kudos are appreciated and as always, if you spot an error, LET ME KNOW.
> 
> **EDIT:** herzspalter actually drew a small scene from this fic for me for my birthday. Look at it right [here!](http://herzspalter.tumblr.com/post/88213881625/happy-birthday-riley-i-wish-you-only-the-best/) I love it so much, I could just stare at it forever. ;w;

“This is crazy! We can’t even get near him! How are we supposed to stop him?” Bulkhead yelled over the sound of Blitzwing’s cannons. Bumblebee peeked around the corner of the makeshift barricade, seeing Blitzwing’s Rage personality on display.

“We should call Prime!” Bulkhead said, ducking a piece of flying debris.

“Wait, I’ve got an idea.” Bumblebee said suddenly remembering something. “Just keep Blitzwing distracted long enough for me to get behind him.”

Before Bulkhead could say anything else, Bumblebee had sped out from behind the barricade, firing his stingers. Blitzwing’s attention was on him for a second before Bulkhead hit him with one of his wrecking balls, grabbing his attention away. That was the opening Bumblebee needed to sneak around Blitzwing.

It was easy once Bumblebee got onto Blitzwing’s back. Planting a pede firmly in the joint of the Decepticon’s right wing, he stuck his servo under Blitzwing’s helm. He found the tight-knit group of neck cables and clamped down hard. The large bot vented sharply and went to his knees. Bumblebee used gravity to his advantage and forced Blitzwing all the way down, keeping his servo on the bot’s neck cables and keeping him facedown on the concrete.

Someone’s cooling fan was running at top speed, and for a nanoklik Bumblebee couldn’t tell whose it was, until he heard Blitzwing vent again. Bumblebee did his best to ignore the way the Decepticon was glaring at him when Bulkhead approached them.

“Whoa! How’d you do that?” Bulkhead asked, staring at the sight of Bumblebee holding down a bot two times his size with just one servo. Bumblebee smirked.

“It’s a little thing called conditioning. Saw it on one of those science shows Sari watches sometimes.”

“How did you know it would work on Blitzwing?”

Bumblebee’s smirk turned sheepish.

“I didn’t. It was a hunch…”

They put the stasis cuffs on Blitzwing and let Optimus know they were heading back to the plant. The Elite Guard had been ‘generous’ enough to give them a few containment units of their own. (Of course, everyone knew it was really because Optimus had blackmailed Sentinel Prime into it. No one knew what the blackmail actually was, but if it was enough to get Sentinel to do what Optimus wanted, it had to be pretty good.)

After they had put Blitzwing into the unit, locking his cuffs behind him to the bench in the unit, keeping him sitting up, Bulkhead left to call Optimus again, leaving Bumblebee with Blitzwing. As soon as Bulkhead had left the room, Bumblebee heard the click whir of Blitzwing’s face changing.

“How did you know that would work?” The Icy face asked. Bumblebee shrugged.

“Like I said, it was a hunch.”

Blitzwing continued to watch him coolly.

“Big hunch. It shouldn’t be surprising that I don’t believe you.” He said. Bumblebee huffed and crossed his arms.

“No, not surprising at all.” He replied with a hint of sarcasm. He was caught off guard by Blitzwing smirking just so, continuing his silent staring. Bumblebee decided that was his cue to leave.

It would take an orn or so for the Elite Guard to tie up what they were doing across the galaxy and come back to Earth, so until then, Blitzwing was to stay in the plant with the Autobots.

For the first few solar cycles, the Autobots pretended that Blitzwing wasn’t currently living under their roof. Bumblebee however couldn’t seem to get the image of Blitzwing’s little smile out of his head. It was just that strange to him. Blitzwing didn’t smile unless he had that Random face of his on. Rarely did his Icy face smile, and never at an Autobot.

One day while the rest of the bots were out on patrol and Sari was at home Professor Sumdac, he dared to venture into the basement. Blitzwing was right where he left him, sitting quietly in his containment unit.

“Something I can help you with, Autobot?” Blitzwing asked smoothly. Bumblebee stopped a little ways from the glass and Blitzwing’s face changed when the silence got to be too much.

“Or have you come just to stare at me until I get irritated?” Rage demanded.

“I saw Megatron do it.”

Blitzwing looked confused, even in his Rage mode.

“What?”

“I saw Megatron do it, that thing with your neck cables.” Bumblebee clarified. He quickly wished he hadn’t when Blitzwing looked even angrier than ever.

“WHEN DID YOU SEE THAT?” He shouted, managing to move an inch or two in spite of the stasis cuffs. “NO ONE IS SUPPOSED TO KNOW.”

Bumblebee was now several feet away from the chamber, staring at Blitzwing like he had never seen him before. All at once, Blitzwing changed faces again, still managing to look angry in spite of his blank expression.

“Get out.” Icy said, closing his optics because he couldn’t turn his head. Bumblebee stayed for a nanoklik longer before leaving, his spark throbbing with anxiety in its chamber. Despite his best efforts, Bumblebee couldn’t stop Blitzwing’s words from ringing in his audials.

_NO ONE IS SUPPOSED TO KNOW_

Never had he ever heard the Decepticon sound so panicked. After puzzling over it for a while longer, he went to find Ratchet. If anyone knew about the Cybertronian equivalent of conditioning, it’d be him.

When the Autobots returned from patrol, he found Ratchet in his room reading a medical data pad. He awkwardly cleared his vocalizer, waiting until Ratchet looked at him to enter the room.

“Uh, hey Doc Bot. How’d the patrol go?” He said, not wanting to come out and ask his question immediately.

“Oh, fine I guess. Something on your mind?” Ratchet said, looking at him knowingly. Bumblebee had the good grace to look embarrassed before sitting down on the offered seat.

“Sort of. I figure you’d be the bot to ask about this. Let’s say there’s these two bots, alright? And one bot has this… power over the other. Like an actual physical power over the other bot, and no matter what the other bot does, they can’t stop themselves from doing whatever the first bot tells them to do. What would you call it?”

He felt uncomfortable with the way Ratchet was staring at him.

“What you’re describing sounds a lot like slave coding.” Ratchet said slowly. Bumblebee felt like he had just taken too big a drink of coolant, his insides freezing.

“Slave coding?” He said. Ratchet nodded gravely.

“That was before your time. It’s a taboo subject now, so it would make sense that you don’t know much about it. There used to be a line of code, a virus if you will, that you could introduce into a bot’s processor core, and they’d be helpless to do anything but follow your every order. You could hardly tell which bots had it. Most of them had been ordered to keep their coding a secret to protect their masters. They’d look perfectly normal on the outside, but on the inside… they were screaming.”

Bumblebee shivered.

“That sounds horrible.”

“It was horrible.” Ratchet sighed, shaking his head. “Luckily, we managed to get most of it deactivated in bots that were still online after the war. There’s no way to remove it that we’ve found yet, but it is possible to shut it down so it can’t do any more damage.”

Bumblebee left Ratchet’s room feeling worse than when he had entered. Did Blitzwing have slave coding? Taboo meant no asking him… not without being an insensitive coghead.

Later that night, Bumblebee couldn’t get his body to go into recharge. He was too busy replaying Megatron grabbing Blitzwing by the back of the neck, forcing him to his knees. At the time, Bumblebee had assumed that Blitzwing was just scared of Megatron because he was _Megatron_ , but if Blitzwing had slave coding, then that would explain so much more.

Bumblebee squeezed his optics closed. Was he really getting concerned about a Decepticon?

His processor showed him the look on Blitzwing’s face when Megatron had forced him down, a split second of fear in Icy’s expression before he flipped over to a cackling Random, and that told him yes, he was getting concerned. Decepticon or not, no bot should have to live like that.

Quietly, he snuck his way past Ratchet’s room into the basement, where he found Blitzwing recharging. It was a strange sight. Blitzwing’s faces were cycling slowly, one by one passing by, each with his optics closed. Bumblebee must not have been as quiet as he thought because Blitzwing stopped on Icy and opened his optics. They immediately narrowed.

“What do you want?” He asked, sounding tired, and not just because Bumblebee had woken him up mid-recharge. The smaller bot squared his shoulders.

“I came to ask you something. About what I said earlier.”

_Click whir_. Random grinned down at him and Bumblebee realized that Blitzwing was (in his own way) side stepping the subject.

“Ooh, is it a riddle? I’m good at those! I always win!” He cackled. Bumblebee swallowed and stepped closer.

“No it’s not a riddle. It’s a straightforward question. Answer it and I’ll leave you alone.”

Icy reappeared, looking down at him with distain. Bumblebee dared another step.

“What do you know about slave coding?”

This time he only jumped a little when Rage showed up, once again yelling at him like Bumblebee had just told him that his spark was going to go out in the next few nanokliks.

“I know that if I weren’t in these stasis cuffs, I would smash my way out of this containment unit and crush you into tiny pieces! You Autobot scum, you have no right to ask me that!”

Bumblebee approached the glass again.

“You want me to leave? Just answer the question.”

The Decepticon started to shake and he switched faces again.

“I. Can’t.” Icy managed to hiss out, his dentas clenched tight. Bumblebee blinked as it finally processed. Blitzwing literally couldn’t talk about slave coding or anything having to do with it. Megatron probably ordered him to keep it a secret. Bumblebee felt his shoulders slump and he sat down on the floor, helm in his servos.

“That’s gotta be awful. I mean you can’t even talk about it.”

Blitzwing blinked at Bumblebee rapidly. Was this little Autobot serious? He was going to just keep talking?

“I can’t imagine what it’d be like to have to keep that a secret.” Bumblebee continued.

Blitzwing dared to unclench his jaw, just to see if he could talk.

“It’s not difficult when I have no other choice.” He said slowly, watching Bumblebee for a reaction. The bot looked up from where he had been staring at the floor.

“So you _do_ have it.” He said incredulously. Blitzwing didn’t answer. He didn’t have to say anything else. His silence was answer enough it seemed because Bumblebee was shaking his helm again.

“Ratchet told me what it does to bots… he told me how there’s no way to get rid of it…” Bumblebee stood up suddenly. “B-but I think there’s a way to deactivate it.”

A little light came back into Blitzwing’s optics but aside from that, he didn’t react.

“Ratchet didn’t say how exactly but I’m sure he knows how to do it.”

Blitzwing raised an optical ridge.

“And why would he do that? Why would he help me? Why do you care what happens to me?” Despite his flat tone, he really was having trouble understanding. Bumblebee seemed to have a pretty big problem with Decepticons, with Blitzwing especially. His sudden concern seemed more like pity than anything.

“Because Decepticon or not, no one should have slave coding.”

And there it was. Blitzwing smirked.

“You don’t actually care, Autobot. You just pity me.”

_Click whir_

“And I don’t need scum like you pitying me!” He yelled.

_Click whir_

“I can throw my own pity party! I get the whole cake to myself that way ahahaha!”

_Click whir_

“So get out before I get angry enough to break these cuffs and crush your tiny frame!”

Bumblebee watched the Decepticon cycle rapidly through his faces, feeling as distressed as he guessed Blitzwing was feeling. He hardly saw the larger bot go through his faces that quickly. Only when he seemed stressed out, and who could blame him?

Bumblebee gave Blitzwing one more look before leaving, an idea floating around in his processor.

[][][][][]

When he came back out of recharge the next day, the first thing he did was offer to bring Blitzwing his energon. Optimus looked surprised but let him, watching him go down to the basement.

Blitzwing wasn’t recharging when Bumblebee opened the door. Instead, he was staring at said door, optics a little unfocused. They refocused when he noticed that Bumblebee had entered the room.

“Have you come to further harass me?” He asked dryly. Bumblebee smiled guiltily.

“No, I… uhm, I just came to give you some energon.”

Bumblebee paused when he realized that Blitzwing wouldn’t be able to feed himself the energon, not without taking off the stasis cuffs. The thing was, Prime had the only key.

That meant Bumblebee would have to feed him.

Blitzwing seemed to have figured out that little detail before him, because he was now watching Bumblebee with mild interest. A few nanokliks went by before Bumblebee squared his shoulders and keyed open the containment unit. He grew even more nervous when he realized that in order to reach Blitzwing’s mouth, he’d have to stand on something. He was just a few inches shy of tall enough. Even standing on his ‘tippy toes’ (as Sari called it) wouldn’t let him reach.

There were a few crates lying around the basement area, but they looked heavier than he could be bothered with dragging into the unit. The only other option he had was to get up onto Blitzwing’s legs, but even though the Decepticon couldn’t move, it still seemed like a bad idea.

“Well?” Blitzwing said, the little smirk making another appearance. Oh he was enjoying this. Bumblebee glared and snatched the cube of energon from where he had left it, holding it in one servo while the other grabbed a hold of Blitzwing’s knee. The Decepticon could do little more than sit there when Bumblebee dug the tip of his pede into the tire tread adorning his shins, using it as a foot hold to heave himself the rest of the way up.

For a single awkward moment, Bumblebee found himself straddling the bigger bot’s leg. He quickly collected himself and went up on his knees, ignoring the smug look on Blitzwing’s face when he finally found himself optic-to-optic with him.

“Go ahead, laugh it up, Blitzbrain.” Bumblebee mumbled. How he managed to not spill the energon when he jumped when Blitzwing changed faces was a miracle.

“BLITZBRAIN! That’s a good one!” Random cackled. Bumblebee rolled his optics. It obviously didn’t take much to amuse this guy.

“Look, you want this energon or not?” Bumblebee sighed. Blitzwing’s answer was to stick his (unusually long) glossa out and stick it in the cube, slurping a small portion of it up. Bumblebee braced himself when Blitzwing changed again, Icy once again smirking at him. Without another word, Bumblebee brought the cube to Blitzwing’s dermas and tipped it up until it was all gone. A small droplet had managed to end up on Blitzwing’s chin, but he simply stuck out his glossa (normal sized once again) and lapped it up, all the while keeping optic contact with Bumblebee.

Bumblebee refused to back down first, struggling to keep his optics on Blitzwing’s, almost sagging in relief when Blitzwing looked away.

“I think you can get off me now.” The Decepticon said smoothly, abruptly ending the increasingly sensual moment. Bumblebee vented harshly and slid off of Blitzwing, cube grasped tightly in his servo.

“You’re welcome.” He grumbled, feeling more than a little embarrassed and irritated. He locked the unit again, throwing one last glare at a now-grinning Blitzwing (did Random always have to leer like that?) before leaving.

He avoided thinking about Blitzwing for the rest of the day… for the most part. Every now and again, a little flash of Blitzwing’s long glossa would fly through his processor, and he found himself trying to quiet the humming of his fans. He had no idea why it was making him all hot under the chest plate, but it was getting real old real fast.

It eventually got to a point where Ratchet pulled him aside to talk to him.

“Hey you feeling alright, kid? Your fans have been going like crazy all day.” The old bot said. Bumblebee choked down the panic zipping through his system.

“Yeah I-I’m fine. Probably just a bug or something… like a fever!”

Ratchet raised an optical ridge.

“We don’t get fevers. That’s an organic thing.”

Bumblebee chuckled something close to ‘I knew that’ and promptly escaped Ratchet’s prying gaze, hiding in his room for a good portion of the rest of the day.

Shortly after the sun had gone down, Prowl knocked on his door and came in holding two energon cubes. He gave one to Bumblebee and placed the other on the edge of a table nearby.

“That one’s for Blitzwing.” He explained after Bumblebee raised an optical ridge at it. Bumblebee stared at him.

“Why’s it in my room?” He squeaked, glad his vocalizer didn’t reduce itself to feedback. Prowl shrugged on his way out.

“You gave it to him this morning, so Ratchet said to bring it to you.”

Bumblebee just kept staring after him. Unbelievable. It made sense, but still. Unbelievable.

After taking as long as possible to drink his energon, he eventually had to accept the fact that he would have to go see Blitzwing. With a sigh, he grabbed the cube and headed down to the basement.

Blitzwing was in a partial recharge when he heard the door open, followed by the now familiar sound of small Autobot pedes. Sure enough, when he opened his optics, Bumblebee stood in front of his unit, if not a bit farther away than usual. He held a cube of energon in his servo, and he did not look happy about it.

“Back so soon, Autobot?” Blitzwing asked, pleased to see Bumblebee’s expression grow sourer. The unit unlocked but Bumblebee didn’t enter the space.

“You better watch it, or I might just let you starve. No one would even notice if you got a little rusty down here.”

Blitzwing’s smile spread until he was forced to change faces.

“That sounds a little extreme. Not really your style.” Random said. “You’re not still mad about this morning, are you?” He laughed. Bumblebee cursed himself when he heard his fans click on. He cursed himself even more when Icy came back and was smirking at him, having obviously heard the fans.

“Now that’s interesting.” The Decepticon practically purred, further embarrassing Bumblebee. Now he was _really_ thinking about just leaving the jerkbot to rust.

“I’ve just got a bug or something… that’s all.”

“I see.” Blitzwing said softly, obviously not buying it. This time, Bumblebee dragged a crate into the unit, standing on it to give Blitzwing the energon. He was extra careful not to let any of it spill this time. When the bigger bot was finished drinking, Bumblebee didn’t look at him, stepping down and pushing the crate away.

“Hey Autobot.” Blitzwing called, making Bumblebee stop and turn back around on his way out the door.

“You should see your medic about that bug. It could become fatal.”

Bumblebee didn’t answer him, closing the basement door with more force than was probably needed.

He went into recharge later hoping that the Elite Guard would show up early to get Blitzwing.

[][][][][]

“ _What do you mean it will take longer?_ ” Bumblebee exclaimed the next morning.

“I mean,” Optimus said, “that it’s taking the Guard longer than they thought to take care of the Decepticons in their current quadrant. Picking up Blitzwing will have to wait.”

Bumblebee could have screamed. To his credit, he didn’t. Instead, he went with Optimus downstairs to inform Blitzwing of the situation, and if he was half way hiding behind Prime, he didn’t think too much on it. His irrational fear (if that was even the right word) of the Decepticon was just that. Irrational.

“The Elite Guard got caught up fighting your Decepticon buddies on the other side of the galaxy,” Optimus said to Blitzwing. “So it looks like you’ll be staying with us a bit longer.”

Blitzwing didn’t smile, Icy face firmly in place. Bumblebee had gotten so used to him smirking that the stoic expression almost looked wrong now.

“That’s unfortunate.” Blitzwing finally said, his voice flat. Having nothing else to discuss, Optimus turned and left. Bumblebee dared to look at Blitzwing and saw his expression was still blank.

“Unfortunate? That’s all you have to say?” Bumblebee said. Blitzwing looked like he wanted to shrug, but the cuffs stopped him.

“Unfortunate that I have to spend more time in this box with these stasis cuffs,” he said, and then the smirk came back. “But not unfortunate that we get to keep spending time together, Autobot.”

Bumblebee came up to the glass, poking a finger at the larger bot inside.

“Hey, this Autobot has a name. You could use it you know.”

“Do you want me to?”

Bumblebee was thrown by the question, because it was a good one. Did he really want to be on a first name basis with Blitzwing? The longer he thought about it, the more aware he was of the other bot’s optics on him, waiting for an answer.

“Yeah I guess…” He said slowly. “It’s better than constantly being called ‘Autobot’ anyway.”

[][][][][]

Blitzwing didn’t use Bumblebee’s name for another few solar cycles. To be fair, Bumblebee hadn’t been around in a while. He had been with Sari, testing some new roads in town. Now that Sari knew she was part Cybertronian, they raced to see if she was faster than him. So far she wasn’t, but she was slowly closing in on his top time. Bumblebee needed to step up his game obviously.

Bumblebee opened the basement door and approached Blitzwing’s unit as usual. Blitzwing was in a partial recharge, but he came out of it when Bumblebee came to a stop in front of the glass.

“Welcome back.” He said. Bumblebee smiled before he could stop himself.

“What’s the matter? Were you bored without me?”

Blitzwing blinked slowly and looked away, a gesture that Bumblebee had figured out was a replacement for shrugging.

“Not particularly. Although the other Autobots don’t come and talk to me like you do.” He returned his gaze to Bumblebee.

“They don’t feed me my energon either. They unlock my cuffs and make me do it myself.”

Bumblebee reset his vocalizer, looking away.

“That’s a bad thing?” Bumblebee mumbled. Blitzwing blinked again, switching over to Random.

“I like it better when you do it.” He said. Bumblebee cocked his head.

“Why?”

“Because it’s funny how flustered you get!” Random laughed, and damn it all, Bumblebee’s fans turned on again. He could feel his faceplates getting warm and he looked away.

“It was the glossa, wasn’t it.” Random said, sounding one hundred percent smug as all hell. Bumblebee’s optics widened. _Blast his fragging fans_ , he wanted them to shut off, not get louder.

“I thought so. It’s an interesting little thing, isn’t it.” Random kept on, and when Bumblebee dared to look at him again, he let his glossa loll out of his mouth.

“Another fun perk of my unexpected upgrade.” Random cackled. Bumblebee gave him a confused look.

“Unexpected upgrade?”

Icy took over, looking like he just let something slip by accident.

“Yes… I was upgraded. A long time ago.” He said slowly. He seemed to struggle with himself (for once not involving changing faces) before continuing. “I wasn’t always like this.”

Bumblebee dragged a crate over, sitting down on it, suddenly very interested. He hadn’t exactly been trying to get Blitzwing to open up, but if Blitzwing wanted to, Bumblebee wasn’t going to stop him.

“Like what? You mean the three faces thing?”

Blitzwing swallowed. Bumblebee was just curious, that’s all. He wasn’t going to use this information to get a pede-up on him later… hopefully.

“I used to only have one face, this one actually. This face and a full range of emotions. I was an ordinary Seeker once, but after joining the Decepticons, I… was upgraded.”

Bumblebee caught onto what Blitzwing was trying to say and felt his tanks churn slightly.

“You mean you were forced to upgrade. Did Megatron make you do it?”

Blitzwing averting his optics as his face switched to Rage told Bumblebee everything. The Autobot made a small sound with his vocalizer, not sure what to say.

“I’d ask what happened, but you couldn’t tell me, could you.” He finally said after a small stretch. Blitzwing switched back to Icy, and Bumblebee realized that he already thought of it as Blitzwing’s default face. It was the one he saw the most of after all.

“There are… things I cannot… talk about, Bumblebee.” Blitzwing said haltingly, continuing to use carefully worded answers to get around his coding. Bumblebee nodded and looked down at his pedes, scratching some dirt off of them and trying not to focus on how fast his spark was pulsing. Blitzwing didn’t call him Autobot that time. He had said his name… It sounded better than Bumblebee wanted to admit.

“I understand.” Bumblebee said. The silence was back and neither bot bothered to break it, at least not until Blitzwing stated that he was bored and Random switched over, singing his own version of several songs, making Bumblebee smile.

Ratchet came to get Bumblebee a little while later, and if he found the sight in front of him strange—the smaller bot just sitting in front of Blitzwing’s unit while the Decepticon sang with that horrible Random face of his—he didn’t say anything. Optimus wanted to go on patrol and he needed Bumblebee to go with him. He told Bumblebee that, and for a nanoklik, Ratchet thought Bumblebee was going to refuse, because he stayed quiet, looking down at his pedes. He eventually nodded and quietly got up, leaving the basement.

Blitzwing had stopped singing, and Ratchet cast a curious glance at him and found him watching Bumblebee leave, his Icy face back in place. They locked optics for a split second and Ratchet was more than sure he saw something in the other bot, right before the blank cold look came back into his optics.

Ratchet left the basement as well, puzzling over what he had observed.

[][][][][]

When the Autobots returned from patrol, Optimus asked Bumblebee for a word. They waited outside while everyone else went inside.

“Is something wrong, Bumblebee?” Optimus asked, looking at his smallest lieutenant. The usually talkative bot had been almost completely silent during the patrol. Bumblebee looked surprised.

“No, nothing’s wrong, boss bot.”

Bumblebee’s surprise was false and Optimus knew it. Bumblebee keeping secrets didn’t sit well with him.

“It’s just, you were really quiet today.” Optimus said. Bumblebee shrugged, looking away from him. He was avoiding optic contact now? Optimus frowned.

“Yeah just got some stuff on my processor I’m trying to work out. It’s nothing I promise.” When Bumblebee smiled, there was a strained quality to it, but Optimus let it slide, easily returning the smile.

“Okay, just checking.”

Conversation over, Bumblebee returned inside, leaving Optimus with stuff on his processor.

[][][][][]

The second time Ratchet found Bumblebee sitting with Blitzwing, actually talking with him, he went to Optimus. The Autobots hardly saw Bumblebee anymore because he was down in the basement. It was getting a little out of hand.

“Prime, I’m worried about Bumblebee.” Ratchet said as a preamble. Optimus looked away from the plant’s main data screen, where he was reading some old reports. Bumblebee had left for Sumdac Tower a little bit ago, so Optimus wasn’t concerned about Bumblebee walking in on this conversation.

“Why?” Optimus asked, even though he could easily guess why. He had to admit, he was worried too.

“He spends a lot of time down in that basement with Blitzwing.” Ratchet replied. “I’m worried it’s messing with his processor. Something’s not right. I feel like he isn’t telling us something. Not to mention I found him going through the medical data pads the other day, and when I asked him what he was looking for, he got all quiet and twitchy.”

Optimus nodded his agreement. Looks like they would be talking to Bumblebee when he came back from Sumdac Tower.

When Bumblebee came back into the plant, he was greeted with the sight of Ratchet and Optimus standing just inside the doorway. Ratchet had his arms crossed over his chassis and Optimus looked a little uncomfortable.

“Hey Bumblebee. Got a nanoklik?” Optimus asked, making it sound like it wasn’t an option. The small bot shrugged and sat down on one of the couches, waiting for the elder bots to join him before spreading his servos.

“What’s up?”

Optimus glanced at Ratchet before speaking.

“Ratchet and I are a little concerned about you, Bumblebee.” Bumblebee seemed genuinely surprised that time.

“About me? Why?”

“More like concerned about all the time you’ve been spending down in the basement.” Ratchet clarified.

Bumblebee’s systems made a little nervous beep before he answered, his voice a little more strained than before.

“What about it?”

“Bumblebee, Blitzwing is a Decepticon. Our prisoner.” Optimus said. “We’re just wondering if all the time you’re spending with him is having a negative influence on you.”

Bumblebee’s expression had gone suspiciously flat as he looked at his leader bot, and Optimus was more than a little afraid of how much it reminded him of Blitzwing.

“If there’s something you would like to share with us…” Ratchet said slowly. Bumblebee didn’t react at first, but he shrugged after some time.

“Nope, I’ve got nothing.”

He got up and left, going to his room. The two elder bots heard the lock snap into place and they looked at each other.

“I told you there was something. Did you see the way he looked at you?” Ratchet said. Optimus nodded.

“Yeah I saw it …”

Something needed to be done.

[][][][][]

Optimus waited until Bumblebee was out of the base again to go and talk to Blitzwing. The Decepticon observed him coolly as he entered the basement, and Optimus’s processor flashed Bumblebee’s similar expression at him. He ignored it.

“Well this is a surprise.” Blitzwing drawled. Optimus stood in front of the unit, staying silent.

“Something I can help you with, Autobot?” Blitzwing pressed.

“There might be. I want to know what you’ve been doing with Bumblebee.”

“Absolutely nothing.” Blitzwing said. “He comes down here and talks to me, and gives me energon. That’s all.”

“I don’t believe that to be true.” Optimus said firmly. Blitzwing’s dermas tightened.

“Believe what you want.”

“You expect me to just accept the fact that he spends the majority of his time down here, with you, and nothing has happened to make him different? Because he is different.”

Blitzwing stayed infuriatingly silent, and the Prime found his patience thinning.

“Fine. Stay quiet. I’ll find out what happened soon enough.”

He turned on his heel strut and left the room, missing the seething glare Rage shot at him.

[][][][][]

When Bumblebee went to go see Blitzwing the next day, he found the door locked. He tried the code several times, getting more and more annoyed every time he heard ‘access denied’. Giving up, he stormed upstairs and found Optimus.

“Why’d you lock the basement?” He demanded.

The bigger bot turned and looked at Bumblebee, who was glaring at him.

“Why do you need to get down there?”

Bumblebee’s glare darkened.

“I need to go give Blitzwing his energon.”

“Ratchet did that already.” Optimus replied, not at all surprised when Bumblebee vented harshly and stormed right back out of the room.

Several solar cycles went by. During that time, Bumblebee was hardly seen in the plant, instead choosing to stay with Sari at Sumdac Tower. The other Autobots quickly noticed the absence of their yellow comrade, and started asking questions.

“It’s been awfully quiet around here lately.” Prowl said during another one of Bumblebee’s absences from patrol. “Where has Bumblebee been going?”

“He’s got some things he’s working through. He’ll be back soon enough.” Ratchet answered. Prowl hummed. He had a hard time believing that.

It had been nearly an orn since Bumblebee had started making himself scarce, so Prowl decided to find out for himself what was going on. He broke off from the other Autobots on the way back to the plant and headed for Sumdac Tower. Sari greeted him on the first floor.

“Hey Prowl! How’s it going?” She said brightly. Prowl raised an optic ridge at her.

“I’m fine. Sari, have you seen Bumblebee?”

The techno organic looked thoughtful, shrugging.

“Nope, he hasn’t been around. Why?”

“Sari, I know he’s here.” Prowl said flatly. “I’m not here to drag him back to the plant. I just want to talk to him, find out what’s going on.”

Sari dropped the act, her shoulders dropping as she sighed.

“He was up on the roof last I checked. Maybe you’ll be able to talk some sense into him, because I got nothing.” She kept talking as she and Prowl made their way to the roof. “I mean he won’t even tell me what’s upsetting him. He just sits there in his alt mode sulking half the time, or he’s up on the roof.”

When they opened the door to the roof, they spotted Bumblebee sitting on the ledge with his legs pulled up to his chassis.

Sari motioned at him, like she was saying ‘see?’, and Prowl approached slowly, sitting down next to him without a word.

“If Prime sent you to bring me back, you can forget it.” Bumblebee sounded tired. Prowl shook his head.

“No he didn’t send me. I came because I was worried.”

“Yeah, well you’re not the first.” Bumblebee grumbled, staring down at the ground below them. It was a fair distance to fall and the idea of it made Bumblebee scoot back a bit.

“I’m just trying to understand.” Prowl said. “Talk to me.”

Bumblebee sighed.

“You wouldn’t understand though. That’s the whole point. Prime and Ratchet think there’s something wrong with me, but there isn’t. I’m not the one who needs help.”

“Who then?”

“Blitzwing.”

Prowl paused, his processor stalling out. He knew Bumblebee had been spending significant amounts of time with the Decepticon, but for him to say that Blitzwing needed help, that was weird.

“I… don’t think that’s new.” He said slowly, thinking of Blitzwing’s triple faces and erratic personalities. Bumblebee made a frustrated noise and stood up.

“That’s not what I mean. I mean he needs help from _us_ , and Prime is keeping me away from him. I have to help him, Prowl.”

Prowl watched as Bumblebee began to pace. He had never seen the younger bot look so distressed. Something in his spark was telling him that right now, Bumblebee needed Prowl’s help. The yellow bot wouldn’t stress himself out over nothing, especially if it involved a Decepticon.

Prowl stood up and put a servo on Bumblebee’s shoulder, stopping him pacing.

“I still don’t know exactly what’s going on, but if I can help…” He trailed off. Bumblebee beamed at him. Standing by the door, Sari sighed with relief. It had been too long since Bumblebee had smiled.

[][][][][]

Optimus was pleased when Prowl returned to the plant with Bumblebee in tow. The smaller bots apologized for being out so late, and explained that they got caught up with Sari. Bumblebee then went to his room without a backward glance. Optimus watched him go, feeling troubled again.

“Don’t worry, I talked to him. It’ll be okay, Optimus.” Prowl said, his voice soothing as always. Optimus nodded. If Prowl said it would be okay, then it would be okay.

Late into the night, Prowl woke Bumblebee out of his recharge. Together, they made their way silently into the basement. The door was of course locked, but there was a reason Prowl had come with Bumblebee.

He sat down in front of the door and started to hum. The lock was hardly a challenge for his processor-over-matter technique, and it clicked open quickly.

“Don’t take too long.” He warned Bumblebee, who nodded at him and went inside.

The relief he felt at seeing Blitzwing still in one piece faded quickly. Blitzwing was recharging, but his face wasn’t cycling like it usually did. It was stuck firmly on Rage, and even in recharge, he looked more pissed than usual. Cautiously, Bumblebee tapped a digit on the unit’s glass case.

Blitzwing was awake instantly, glaring out at whoever had woken him. When he saw a familiar yellow bot smiling at him, he froze, Icy taking over. There was actual disbelief on his face, his optics wide.

“Bumblebee?” He said softly. Bumblebee’s smile stayed.

“You remember my name?”

Blitzwing blinked a few times and began to smile back when he spotted Optimus and the rest of the Autobots coming out of the basement elevator. Prowl leapt to his feet, conflicted about what he should do. Should he stop the others from reaching Bumblebee, or step aside and let them? He settled for staying where he was and letting them approach.

“Bumblebee! Step away from the containment unit.” Optimus commanded. He cast a glance at Prowl.

“We’ll talk about this later.”

Prowl remained stone-faced so Optimus returned his attention to the matter at hand, shocked to find Bumblebee had his stingers armed and aimed right at him.

“Bumblebee!” Ratchet exclaimed. Bulkhead lowered his hands hesitantly. There was no way he was going to fight his friend, not even if Optimus told him to… only if Bumblebee threw the first punch, be it metaphorically or literally.

“You guys need to listen to me.” Bumblebee said, not moving from his spot right in front of Blitzwing, who was watching all of this unfold with mild concern. He didn’t care if the Autobots decided to attack him, but he _did_ care that Bumblebee was putting himself in the line of fire (apparently) for him, and his concern for the small yellow Autobot was what was holding his attention more than anything.

“I won’t ask again—“ Optimus started before Bumblebee interrupted him again.

“Then don’t! Stop talking and listen.” He snapped. “I know what you all have been saying about me. ‘His circuits are fried.’ ‘His processor is scrambled. ‘Blitzwing did something to him’.” He said, his voice angry. “He didn’t do anything. He needs my—our—help… and I can prove it.”

He faltered and snuck a look at Blitzwing. The larger bot had his optics on Optimus and company, but they flicked to Bumblebee for a nanoklik. Blitzwing didn’t have to say anything. His optics told Bumblebee that it was okay, so the Autobot squared his shoulders and put his stingers away. Everyone in the room relaxed slightly.

“Blitzwing needs our help because…” He stopped, forcing the words out, “because he has slave coding.”

Ratchet was the first to react after a short silence.

“And I suppose he told you this, did he?” His snark earned him a flat glare from Bumblebee.

“You know he more than likely couldn’t because Megatron told him not to talk about it.”

“Megatron did this?” Optimus said. Bumblebee vented, exasperated.

“Yes! I think we can all agree that whenever something bad happens to a bot, it’s Megatron’s fault.”

The Autobots were now looking at Blitzwing with interest, Bulkhead especially since he, like Bumblebee, were just barely too young to remember when slave coding ran rampant on Cybertron. He had heard of it, but he hadn’t witnessed it first-hand like Ratchet and Optimus. The same went for Prowl.

Blitzwing sat stock still, resisting the urge to switch faces and almost shaking with the effort of it. Part of him wanted to use Rage to glare out at them, but that wouldn’t help him. He was actually pleased with himself. He never had much control over his faces, and yet here he was, resisting it.

It was because Bumblebee was trying to help him. No one had bothered to lend him a servo in a very, very long time. It was… nice.

Ratchet hummed in thought.

“Assuming that what Bumblebee says is true—“

“It is!”

“—and Blitzwing has slave coding, it would explain why you’ve been so secretive and why you were going through my medical data pads. All that considered however, I’m sure neither of you would if I asked some questions, just to see for myself.”

Bumblebee looked at Blitzwing again, and the Decepticon let one of his optic ridges raise slightly.

“If it would satisfy you.” He said.

By now, everyone in the room was watching quietly as Bumblebee reluctantly stepped away from the unit, joining Prowl off to the side, keeping his optics on Blitzwing. Ratchet took Bumblebee’s previous spot, looking up at Blitzwing before speaking.

“State your designation, alliance, and model type.”

“I am Blitzwing, a Triple-Changer aligned with the Decepticons.” Blitzwing said, his voice monotone. Bumblebee instantly disliked it.

“Do you know what slave coding is?” Ratchet asked. Blitzwing stiffened like someone had pinched one of his struts.

“Yes.” He said tightly. Ratchet continued.

“Can you explain it?”

Blitzwing remained silent, his jaw tight. Ratchet nodded.

“Okay. Now I’m going to say words and phrases and see how you react.”

Blitzwing blinked so Ratchet started.

“Megatron.”

No reaction.

“Slave coding.”

Blitzwing’s jaw tightened again.

“Discipline.”

Blitzwing flinched, his optics narrowing. Bumblebee almost wanted to tell everyone to leave. This was obviously hard on Blitzwing, and Bumblebee didn’t like everyone staring at him like he was a medical experiment… although technically he was…

“Medical port.”

The Decepticon’s optics snapped closed and one of his internal systems pinged a warning at him.

“Severe punishment.”

Finally his face switched, with Rage taking Icy’s place. His dentas were gritted and bared as usual, but he looked more like he was getting ready to protect himself if necessary, and not just attack.

Bumblebee reached out and grabbed Ratchet’s arm.

“Ratchet stop! You’re stressing him out.”

The old bot nodded again, stepping back.

“It’s okay, I’ve seen enough. Those are signs of slave coding, alright. During the war, we eventually figured out that a lot of bots with slave coding have some of the same trigger words, words and phrases that would make them automatically react, too fast for the code to catch. Sometimes it was the name of their master, and sometimes it was something as simple as…” He paused, not wanting to say the words again and hurt Blitzwing further. “Well, as simple as the ones I just said.”

The Autobots were all looking at each other, but Bumblebee only had optics for Blitzwing. The bot still hadn’t changed his face back, snarling from behind the glass. It wasn’t until the Autobots left, with Ratchet promising that he’d start working on the deactivation patch right away, that Blitzwing relaxed slightly.

Bumblebee once again stayed behind, and when the door clicked closed, he keyed open the containment unit. Icy reappeared, smiling softly at him.

“I suppose I was wrong about your medic.” He said. Bumblebee chuckled.

“Ratchet may be the crankiest bot in existence, but he’s still a medic, as he likes to remind us every few solar cycles.”

Blitzwing made a sound that was very close to a laugh and Bumblebee thought his circuits were going to melt. At the speed his fans were going, you’d think they were melting already. This was not good. Not good at all.

Bumblebee would have stayed with Blitzwing until Ratchet was done with the patch, but the doc bot had said it would take a while, so he eventually had to leave, but not before Blitzwing stopped him by saying his name again.

“Yeah?” Bumblebee said. Blitzwing was looking at him carefully, something flashing in his optics that Bumblebee couldn’t decode.

“I… thank you.” His voice was so soft that Bumblebee was tempted to think he had imagined it. The yellow bot’s processor beeped an alert at him, but Bumblebee filed it away for later, smiling at the Decepticon.

“No problem. I’ll be back tomorrow. Don’t go anywhere.” His joke earned him a returned smile.

[][][][][]

Sitting in his berth, Bumblebee accessed the alert from earlier, not understanding what it was telling him. It was a code like he had never seen before. The longer he looked at it, the more confused he got, so he once again filed it away and went into recharge. If the alert persisted, he’d go talk to Ratchet.

Unknown to Bumblebee, Blitzwing was getting the same alert. The only difference was that Blitzwing knew what it meant. He was a couple vorn older than Bumblebee (and he probably paid more attention in school than the younger bot had), so he knew exactly what the alert meant.

And it scared him. His processor was so full of thought that he couldn’t even go into recharge that night.

[][][][][]

Bumblebee came out of recharge the next day with the strange alert twittering at him. He once again decided he was going to ignore it, but then for some reason, it suddenly seemed like a bad idea. A trip to see Ratchet it was then.

“So you know how I said I had a bug?” Bumblebee said when he walked into the sick bay area. Ratchet hummed in response.

“I think I might actually have one this time.” He tapped the side of his helm. “I’ve got this alert that won’t go away. I don’t understand it. Figured you would know what it meant.”

“Alright have a seat.” Ratchet said, motioning to the medical berth. Bumblebee did as he was told and waited for Ratchet to plug into his medical port. It always sent a little electrical jolt through his system that left his digits tingling.

“Pull that alert up for me, would you?” Ratchet said. Bumblebee once again did as requested. A few nanokliks went by.

“By the AllSpark…” Ratchet breathed. Bumblebee looked at the screen but the coding still didn’t make sense.

“What? What is it?” Bumblebee asked. Ratchet told him not to move and left, making Bumblebee stare hard at the code, willing it to decipher itself. Needless to say, it didn’t work.

Ratchet keyed open the basement and approached Blitzwing, whose Icy face greeted him.

“Ratchet, wasn’t it? Do you have the patch code ready?”

Ratchet shook his head.

“Not yet, but I’m almost finished. However, that’s not why I’m here.”

Blitzwing let a small smile appear, cocking his head.

“I think I know why. I’d wager you have Bumblebee sitting in the sick bay with some interesting questions.” Random took over.

“Am I right? Oh, did I win a prize?” He laughed. Ratchet being taken aback by Random’s appearance amused Blitzwing further. Bumblebee didn’t even react anymore. He switched back, figuring that Ratchet would be more inclined to talk to Icy.

“Actually yes, which is why I just got permission to take you up there. The cuffs stay on, but Prime gave me the okay to allow you some movement. But no funny business, you hear me?”

Blitzwing waited until he heard the beep on the cuffs to attempt to stand, venting in relief when his legs creaked and groaned. They really should have let him walk around sooner. He probably had rust forming in his joints. He looked down at the old bot and nodded.

“Of course. This affects me too, you know.”

With the Decepticon walking in front of Ratchet, they went up the basement lift and walked through the main area of the plant, drawing the attention of Bulkhead and Sari (who stared and whispered none-too-quietly ‘what’s Ratchet doing with Blitzwing?’) before arriving in the sick bay. Bumblebee was still sitting on the med bed, looking troubled, but he quickly perked up when he spotted Ratchet and Blitzwing.

“Hey! They let you out?”

Blitzwing sat down on the opposite med bed, shrugging. All the motion was a bit jarring to Bumblebee, who has just spent the last few orns talking to (for all intents and purposes) a Decepticon statue.

“It’s only temporary.” Blitzwing said. “I’ll no doubt be sent back to the unit after we are finished here.”

Bumblebee deflated a bit at that, watching Ratchet step up to reach for Blitzwing’s medical port. The medic stopped short, his optics going wide.

“Oh my Primus.” Ratchet said, making Blitzwing tense. “Are you sure—“

“I’d rather not discuss it.” Blitzwing snapped, keeping his optics off of Bumblebee, who was looking at him. “Please proceed.”

Bumblebee didn’t miss Blitzwing’s full-body flinch when Ratchet plugged into his medical port, his optics squeezing closed before opening again, a strange look in them. Bumblebee watched in interest as a code identical to his was pulled up on Blitzwing’s medical screen. Ratchet was humming in thought, shaking his head.

“I can’t believe this.” He finally said. Bumblebee scooted closer to his screen, staring.

“Can’t believe what? Can’t believe what?” He said frantically. He had always hated seeing doc bots, ever since he was a sparkling. They were always so cryptic and it made him glitchy.

Ratchet looked at Blitzwing instead and crossed his arms.

“I’m assuming since you’re not asking questions that you know what this code means.”

Blitzwing’s answer was little more than a single-shoulder shrug. Ratchet sighed and pinched the bridge of his olfactory sensor, turning to leave.

“Then I’ll leave you to explain just what’s going on around here, because there’s no way I’m doing it.”

With that, he was gone, and Bumblebee and Blitzwing were alone in the sick bay. Bumblebee looked at Blitzwing, searching for answers, but he found the other bot couldn’t even look him in the optics.

“Okay break it to me easy. Do we have some kind of killer virus? Are we gonna go offline?” Bumblebee finally said, relieved to hear Blitzwing’s little almost laugh.

“No we’re not going to go offline… but I’m worried the truth will make you wish you could.”

Bumblebee cocked his head, not liking the bitter tone Blitzwing’s voice had acquired. He got off the med bed and pulled his screen with him, coming to a stop in front of Blitzwing.

“Try me.”

The other bot looked pained but eventually he pointed to his screen.

“This line of code is ancient. A lot of bots nowadays don’t believe it exists, that it’s just a myth, but as you can see, it is not.”

Bumblebee looked between the two screens, seeing that not a single glyph was out of place. Completely identical.

“Soooooo what’s it for?” He asked. Blitzwing hesitated.

“It’s supposed to stay dormant unless…” He looked away again. “Unless your spark finds and connects with its destined mate…”

Bumblebee’s processors stalled.

Destined… mate?

All at once, his systems came back online and he stared up at the larger bot.

“So wait… you… and me?” He said, frustrated that Blitzwing wouldn’t even look at him when he nodded. “But that’s crazy! Sparks aren’t destined for one another. That’s all legend and old stories.”

“I did just say that most bots deny the existence of this code.” Blitzwing said, looking at the screens and watching the code dim and light. “It is very rare for it to happen, and the code goes dead if a bot bonds with another that isn’t their destined mate. It’s as if it wasn’t even there.”

Bumblebee was still struggling to wrap his head around what was happening.

“So if I had found a sparkmate before we met, my code would dead, and this wouldn’t be happening.”

Blitzwing nodded again.

“I told you that you wouldn’t like it.”

“No! It’s not that…” Bumblebee said softly, joining Blitzwing in staring at the code, finding it hard to believe that it now had the potential to control his future. “It’s just a little difficult to wrap my processor around…”

They sat like that for some time, watching their codes shimmer on the screens before Bumblebee spoke again.

“What are your thoughts on this?” His voice was quiet. He almost felt guilty for interrupting the silence. Blitzwing inhaled deeply, venting it out slowly.

“I have no opinion on the matter.” He said, a flat sentence that Bumblebee knew to be a lie almost instantly. Irritated, he climbed up onto the med bed with Blitzwing, sitting next to him and glaring up at him.

“Yes you do, otherwise you wouldn’t look like your mother-creator just sent you to your berth room for goofing off.” Another small smile made Bumblebee relax a little. Blitzwing looked away from the code and down at the smaller bot next to him. He was so much bigger than Bumblebee…

“Alright, then my opinion does not matter.” He corrected. Bumblebee started to protest but Blitzwing talked over him. “My free will is an illusion, and you know why.” He once again went silent, choosing his words carefully.

“If Megatron were to find out about this, I’m afraid he would… order me to destroy you.” He was confused by his words. It wasn’t just finding out about the code that was making him think this way. Slowly over the previous orns, every nanoklik he spent with Bumblebee made him feel something more for the Autobot.

“Are you saying you don’t want to destroy me?” Bumblebee said, keeping the smile off his face when Blitzwing looked alarmed.

“Of course I don’t want to—“ Blitzwing stopped, amending his statement, “I mean… what would be the point? You’ve taken care of me, and your medic has offered to… f-fix me.” He stuttered, the word getting caught in his vocalizer and making it glitch. For the first time in stellar cycles, he had forgotten about it, even if his system hadn’t. Suddenly, another piece of forgotten information drifted into his processors, and before he could stop himself, he was talking again.

“This code… it’s rare for it to activate, almost unheard of these days… it just might be old enough to cancel out that other piece of code…”

It took Bumblebee a second to understand and when he did, his systems beeped excitedly, his optics lighting up.

“Are you saying if Ratchet’s patch doesn’t work, this weird code can fix you?” He said quickly. Blitzwing nodded, but he still looked unhappy. Bumblebee dared to reach out and touch him, digits just barely brushing the Decepticon’s arm.

“What’s wrong?”

Blitzwing’s engines turned over (Bumblebee could feel the rumble through the med bed) and he looked frustrated. Bumblebee was surprised that he hadn’t changed faces yet.

“It could possibly cancel the code… but only if we became spark bonded.”

Blitzwing couldn’t look at Bumblebee. He didn’t want to see how the other bot was looking at him. He guessed it was time to just admit that he had feelings for the yellow bot and move on. There was nothing he could do about it now, not with the destined spark code swimming through his system. He hated to even entertain the idea that the code was possibly the source of his feelings, but he knew better. The code couldn’t cause feelings. It could only amplify them.

Which would explain why he was suddenly feeling overwhelmed.

“I don’t see a problem here.”

That got him to look at Bumblebee, who was looking up at him with honesty in every inch of his frame. Blitzwing cocked his head, looking thoroughly confused.

“You do know spark bonding is a highly intimate experience and should be—“

“Saved for the bot you want to spend your life with blah blah, yeah I know that.” Bumblebee waved him off. “But this is more important.”

Blitzwing couldn’t stop his face from switching this time.

“No!” Rage insisted. Bumblebee only blinked at him. “I won’t let you throw away such an important experience for my sake. Your medic will fix me. Don’t be stupid!”

Bumblebee actually smiled.

“Aw, you do care.”

Blitzwing sputtered, at a loss for words for a second.

“Of course I do!” He finally said. Bumblebee’s smile just spread wider and Blitzwing vented angrily.

“Forget it! It’s not going to happen!” He said firmly. Bumblebee chuckled and scooted closer. They were close enough to touch but Blitzwing keep his servos clenched into fists on his legs. He tried to ignore the touch of digits on his arm when Bumblebee sighed.

“Alright fine. It’s your choice after all. Besides, Ratchet is almost done with the patch.”

“I’d be done quicker if you two would clear out of here.” Ratchet said as he reentered the space, giving Blitzwing a wary glance. Blitzwing switched faces with some effort.

“How much longer?” He asked, feeling glitchy and impatient. Bumblebee noticed and touched him again, and if Blitzwing subtly pressed into the servo on his arm, well…

“I don’t know, a few more megacycles maybe?” Ratchet shrugged. “Should be finished by this evening, but I need peace and quiet, so why don’t you go back down to the basement.” It wasn’t a request, so Bumblebee unplugged from the screen and waited for Blitzwing to do the same.

Ratchet noticed the large bot’s hesitation and walked over, carefully disconnecting him, apologizing when Blitzwing made a pained sound. Bumblebee’s servo was on his arm again and this time, he appreciated it.

He appreciated it even more when Bumblebee didn’t ask questions, simply leading him back to the basement. Optimus stopped them before they left the main area, looking at Blitzwing carefully.

“Ratchet said that you probably need some stretching time, so I’m gonna take the cuffs off, but—“

“No funny business.” Blitzwing cut in. “I know.”

Optimus nodded, trusting Bumblebee to watch him, and clicked the unlock button on his keypad. The stasis cuffs powered down and fell to the floor. Blitzwing’s joints protested as he moved and rotated them, scowling at the traces of rust on his wrists.

“Come on, I’ve got something that can help with that.” Bumblebee said, servo returning to its new preferred spot on Blitzwing’s arm. Optimus watched them go, venting slowly when Prowl came and stood next to him.

“I think things just got more complicated around here.” He said tiredly. Prowl hummed in agreement.

“It would seem so.”

Blitzwing sat quietly as Bumblebee rubbed some strong smelling liquid on his wrists.

“It’s called vinegar. Takes rust off way better than anything I’ve ever seen.” Bumblebee explained, gently scraping the red flecks off of Blitzwing’s wrists. Sure enough, when he was finished, there wasn’t a single trace of rust anywhere. Blitzwing ran his servo over his wrist, finding it completely smooth.

“Impressive.” He said. Bumblebee smiled and put the bottle away, coming back to join Blitzwing on the bench. There was no point in him going back into the unit at this point, and Bumblebee wasn’t going to lock him back in there if it wasn’t necessary.

A silence lapsed and Bumblebee started tracing his digits over Blitzwing’s arm again.

“You keep doing that…” The Decepticon observed softly. Bumblebee looked up at him, blinking.

“Want me to stop?” He asked, and Blitzwing shook his head as his engine started idling contently.

“No…”

Bumblebee continued his quiet stroking, venturing up the Decepticon’s arm until he couldn’t reach any further, and then tracing back down to Blitzwing’s servo. Blitzwing almost fell into partial recharge under the gentle caresses when Bumblebee spoke quietly.

“Blitzwing, be honest. How do you really feel about me?”

The Decepticon considered his answer carefully before smiling.

“I don’t have a face for it.”

Bumblebee chuckled and reached up, touching his face.

“That’s okay. I like this one just fine.” He said, feeling his spark pulse when Blitzwing let his optics close, leaning into Bumblebee’s touch like he had in the sick bay. Something told Bumblebee that Blitzwing didn’t get a lot of friendly contact. Finally having another bot touch him kindly must be a relief compared to what he usually had to endure. Bumblebee’s systems beeped sadly as he thought about it, attracting the larger bot’s attention.

“Don’t worry. We’ll get Ratchet’s patch activated, and then you’ll be okay.” He said firmly, smoothing a digit over Blitzwing’s cheek plate. Blitzwing watched him quietly before grasping his wrist gently, pulling his servo away from his face.

Bumblebee’s fans started up as Blitzwing leaned down and pressed their dermas together, keeping his hold on Bumblebee’s wrist when he pulled away. The smaller bot vented shakily, his optics bright, and Blitzwing smiled, their faces still close.

“You’re a strange little Autobot.” He said, accepting the second kiss from Bumblebee when the little bot shifted from sitting to up on his knees, his now free servo clenching tight on Blitzwing’s arm. The Decepticon wrapped his other servo around Bumblebee’s waist and pulled him closer, engines rumbling when Bumblebee released his hold and instead wrapped his arm around his neck.

Bumblebee was so small in his arms that it made Blitzwing a bit nervous. He must have hesitated because Bumblebee pulled back, blinking at him.

“What’s wrong?”

Blitzwing tightened his grip on Bumblebee’s waist, coaxing him closer.

“Nothing. You’re just so small.”

Bumblebee’s engines revved angrily.

“I am not!” He said, crossing his arms and looking away even as Blitzwing chuckled. He huffed when Blitzwing kissed the side of his helm.

“It’s not a bad thing. I like how small you are.”

“Oh yeah?” Bumblebee scoffed. “Why?”

“Because I can do this.”

Bumblebee definitely did _not_ squeak when Blitzwing suddenly lifted him and placed him in his lap, keeping an arm curled around him and tucking him against his chassis. Bumblebee fit perfectly, and after a few halfhearted protests (not even halfhearted if he was honest), he relaxed, enjoying the heat radiating from the bigger bot, audials taking in the rumble of his jet engines.

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t so bad being small… Bumblebee relaxed further, his digits once again tracing over the metal of Blitzwing’s armor. He even dared to trace the lines of the Decepticon symbol on his chest plates.

“I would have never believed this could have happened a few orns ago.” Bumblebee said with a laugh. “I remember how bad I wanted the Elite Guard to show up early and take you away.”

Blitzwing chuckled, shrugging.

“It isn’t surprising.”

Bumblebee went quiet again, his servo resting on Blitzwing’s chassis.

“I’m sorry about what I did… when Bulkhead and I took you down. I’m sorry.” He looked up at Blitzwing and the larger bot put their helms together, engine idling again.

“You didn’t know. All you saw was an opportunity to take down an enemy. A good strategy if I do say so myself.”

“Yeah but—“

Blitzwing kissed him again.

“It doesn’t matter anymore. It already happened. You can’t go back and change it.” He explained gently. Bumblebee vented slowly and nodded, relaxing completely against the Decepticon and closing his optics. Blitzwing watched him quietly, putting their helms together again, feeling the quiet hum of Bumblebee’s engine through the contact.

[][][][][]

Ratchet found the two bots in recharge several megacycles later, and for a moment, he observed them quietly. He didn’t really know how he felt about this new relationship, but seeing how relaxed Bumblebee looked tucked against Blitzwing’s chassis, with the Decepticon holding him tight with a protective servo around his waist, he guessed it couldn’t be that bad for the kid.

Besides, during his time at the plant, Blitzwing had been a model prisoner. The only time he had been trouble was when Bumblebee had pulled his disappearing act, and even then all he had done was glare at them with that Rage face of his. All of that made more sense now that he knew Blitzwing and Bumblebee both had destined spark code, and that they matched up.

He almost felt bad when he reset his vocalizer loudly, waking both of the bots up. Bumblebee spotted him standing in the doorway, and probably would have fallen off of Blitzwing’s lap if the other bot hadn’t been holding him so tight.

“Ratchet!” He exclaimed, clearly embarrassed. Blitzwing looked bored as usual, blinking slowly at the doc bot as if nothing was out of place and that Bumblebee recharging in his lap was perfectly normal. Ratchet had to give him points for that.

“The deactivation patch is ready if you want to give it a shot.” He said. Blitzwing’s optics widened and Bumblebee grinned, climbing off of Blitzwing and practically bouncing on his pedes.

“That’s awesome!” He said, looking at Blitzwing excitedly.

“Indeed.” Blitzwing said slowly, standing up and following the two Autobots. They entered the sick bay and Ratchet had Blitzwing lie down on one of the med beds on his side. It took a few tries for him to arrange his wings comfortably, but it worked out eventually. In spite of all that, Blitzwing was still incredibly tense.

“You know,” Ratchet said gently, “if you’d rather do this another way, it’s up to you.”

Blitzwing considered it for a second.

“No, this… this is fine. I’ll be okay.”

Bumblebee reached out and touched his face again, cocking his head.

“Do you want me to leave?”

“No.” Blitzwing shook his head. “I need something nice to wake up to.” He smiled when Bumblebee ducked his head, embarrassed. Ratchet almost shook his head in disbelief.

“Alright, here’s how this is going to happen. I’m going to plug into your medical port and plant the patch. Your systems will reset and, AllSpark willing, you’ll come back online in a breem or so with that blasted code deactivated.”

Blitzwing nodded and took a deep breath, venting it as Ratchet plugged into the medical port, not flinching this time.

“Here we go.” Ratchet said as a warning. Bumblebee took Blitzwing’s servo, holding it tightly as Blitzwing’s optics shut. He heard the Decepticon’s engines powering down and waited, listening to the steady beep of the medical screen in the otherwise quiet room. A breem and a half passed before Blitzwing’s engines turned over and his system started back up.

When his optics opened, he immediately stared at Bumblebee like he had never seen him before. He looked around the room with the same confused expression, and Bumblebee looked at Ratchet, growing worried. Ratchet however, looked pleased.

“Give him a nanoklik to adjust.”

Eventually Blitzwing’s optics returned to Bumblebee and this time, he smiled.

“Did it work?” He asked. Bumblebee sighed with a returned smile.

“I don’t know.”

Ratchet came around to stand in front of Blitzwing.

“If you can sit up, we can find out. Take your time, no rush.” He said as Blitzwing pushed himself up slowly. When he was completely upright, Ratchet waited for him to nod before speaking.

“We’re going to go through the same process as last time. Designation, alliance, model type.”

“I am Blitzwing, a Triple-Changer aligned with the Decepticons.” Blitzwing said, sounding confident.

“Do you know what slave coding is?”

Blitzwing nodded. “Yes.”

“Can you explain it?”

The old bot began to smile when Blitzwing started speaking.

“It’s a section of code that allows one bot complete control over another. It’s widely considered to be outlawed now due to it being unethical.”

Bumblebee was grinning excitedly when Blitzwing blinked, realizing what he had just said.

“Megatron.” Ratchet said. Blitzwing didn’t react.

“Slave coding. Discipline. Medical port. Severe punishment.”

Blitzwing was just sitting and smiling, having not reacted to any of Ratchet’s trigger words.

“Looks like your code is officially deactivated.”

Blitzwing’s whole frame sagged in relief and Bumblebee climbed up onto the med bed next to him, wrapping his arms around the bigger bot’s neck and squeezing him tight. Ratchet chuckled at how Bumblebee had to be up on his knees to even reach. Blitzwing wrapped his arm around Bumblebee and pressed his face into the yellow bot’s shoulder.

“Thank you.” He said quietly, lifting his face to look at Ratchet.

“And thank you especially.”

Ratchet nodded, accepting the thanks quietly.

“You mind if I ask you a personal question?” Ratchet said. Blitzwing shook his head, still holding Bumblebee tight.

“Did you actually join the Decepticons, or did Megatron force you into it?”

Blitzwing raised an optic ridge.

"I joined the Decepticons by choice, but to be honest, back then I didn't care which side won so long as one did and the war stopped." Blitzwing explained. Ratchet was surprised. He would have expected a bot like Blitzwing would want the war to last as long as possible. Then again, the mech he had come to know as Blitzwing wasn't the same Blitzwing from the start of the war. After all, you weren't sparked a triple changer. You had to be upgraded.

"And your being a triple-changer, was that by choice too?"

Blitzwing's face darkened and he held Bumblebee tighter, easing up when Bumblebee pulled back to look at him.

"No. That was not my decision... Megatron 'requested' I upgrade." He said, making it very clear that Megatron hadn't requested it at all.

"I was content being a Seeker, but he said I had the potential to be something more powerful." He returned his gaze to Bumblebee.

“You wanted to know what happened to me. Now I can tell you…”

With a nervous rev of his engine and a gentle touch to his face from Bumblebee, he began his story.

[][][][][]

_[On Cybertron many decavorns ago]_

Blitzwing sat alone at a bar, drinking some sad excuse for energon. It was all they could get these days, seeing as the two new independent groups of Cybertronians—christened the Autobots and the Decepticons—spent most of their free time trying to offline each other. The scholar bots were calling it a war on a planetary scale unlike any they’ve ever seen before.

Blitzwing didn’t give two frags about the war. He’d be happy when they quit fighting so things could go back to normal. A servo landed on his shoulder and Starscream sat himself down on the stool next to Blitzwing.

“I’ll have what he’s having.” The other Seeker told the bartending bot. Blitzwing ignored him. He didn’t much care for Starscream, but he was one of the only Decepticons around that could hold a conversation about something other than the war.

“So did you hear the news about Megatron?”

Well. Most of the time…

“No I didn’t,” Blitzwing said, putting his now empty cube down, “but I’m sure you’ll share with me.”

Starscream ignored his dry tone in favor of scooting closer.

“They’re saying he upgraded again. Bots are claiming to have seen him with an arm cannon, a real one like from the old days. Those are almost impossible to find, you know.”

“No I didn’t.” Blitzwing repeated sarcastically. Starscream carried on.

“I’d do anything to actually meet him. Can you imagine? Meeting Megatron face to face?” Starscream shook his head with a laugh and took a drink from his cube. Blitzwing raised an optic ridge at him.

“You’ve never met him?”

Starscream laughed.

“Of course not, have you? Don’t be stupid. No one of our rank has actually met him. You have to be really fragging important to meet the great and mighty Megatron.”

Blitzwing didn’t respond. He knew Megatron was real, everyone knew that. Most had seen him in battle, but Starscream was right. Bots like them didn’t meet with Megatron.

_[Some stellar cycles later]_

“You wanted to see me, Lord Megatron?”

The mech in question looked up and smiled.

“Ah, Blitzwing. Do come in.”

Blitzwing did as he was asked, stopping in front of Megatron’s desk. The fact that the warlord actually had a desk and did work at it at times was still astounding to Blitzwing. He didn’t seem like the type.

He tried not to shift around nervously as he waited for Megatron to speak again. The Decepticon leader hardly ever called for Blitzwing by name.

“I’ve been thinking, Blitzwing.” Megatron said, his deep voice echoing around the space. “You’re quite extraordinary for a Seeker.”

Blitzwing didn’t reply because he didn’t agree. He thought he was quite average when compared to the other high-ranking Seekers like Starscream (who was extremely fast) or Lugnut (who was the biggest and strongest Seeker they had).

“But I think you could become something more.” Megatron continued, looking up from his writing pad again. “I see much potential in you.”

The smaller Decepticon stood still when Megatron stood up and walked a circle around him.

“There’s something about you that just oozes it.”

A heavy servo on Blitzwing’s shoulder almost made his knee joints buckle.

“I’d like to explore that. Our scientists are developing a new series of upgrades, and I want to nominate you as a candidate.”

Blitzwing looked up in surprise.

“What kind of upgrades?” He dared to ask. Megatron smiled and sat back down.

“We are nearing the breakthrough point that will allow a bot to have not just one alt mode, but two.”

Blitzwing couldn’t stop the disbelief from creeping onto his face. _Two_ alt modes? He had never heard of such a heinous idea. It was bizarre, wrong even. Thinking about it made his tanks churn slightly. Megatron didn’t seem to notice Blitzwing’s sudden uneasiness (or he just didn’t care) and continued talking.

“Sadly none of our test subjects have survived. Their systems keep crashing, so we have to offline them out of mercy.” He shrugged, looking at a now very terrified Blitzwing.

A system crash was worse than going offline sometimes. Bots who crashed became something else… sometimes monstrous and impossible to control. Blitzwing didn’t want that. He hadn’t even wanted to be involved in the war, but Starscream had somehow smooth talked him into joining the Decepticons.

“I’m… not so sure about this, Lord Megatron. I think you should find another bot for these procedure.” Blitzwing said slowly, resisting the urge to back away when Megatron got to his pedes once more and came to stand in front of him, servos clasped behind his back.

“I thought you might feel that way.”

The doors to the study opened and several medic bots came into the room. Before Blitzwing could do more than struggle a little, the bots had him restrained on a rolling med bed. He stared up at Megatron in fear while the bigger bot simply looked at him.

“I’m sorry to do this, Blitzwing. I really am.”

Blitzwing felt someone attempt to open his medical port cover and panicked. He got the restraints off and had knocked two of the four medic bots out before Megatron himself got a hold of him, a strong handed grip on his neck cables sending him to his knees with a gasp. The grip tightened and forcibly opened his medical port cover.

Blitzwing struggled more, screaming in pain when he felt something sharp get inserted into his medical port. He shook in Megatron’s grip, a hot sensation flooding his entire frame, getting so hot that he thought his circuits were melting before his systems blessedly reset, sending him into darkness.

When he came back to himself, lying on his side on the ground with one of his wings trapped painfully under him, he felt groggy and heavy. He felt wrong. Sluggishly he glanced around and found Megatron down on one knee in front of his face, smiling. A medic bot stood off to the side, refusing to look at the incapacitated Seeker.

“Welcome back, Blitzwing.”

Blitzwing blinked blearily at him, his processor full of fuzzy code as Megatron spoke again.

“What you’ve just experienced was the installation of slave coding on your system.”

That woke Blitzwing up fast, his expression flooding with terror. Megatron was still smiling.

“Yes you know what that is, don’t you. You would. You’re smarter than a lot of bots these days, so I needn’t explain what it does to you. All you need to know is that I am your Master now, and you will obey.”

Blitzwing’s frame gave a full body jerk as his processor went into overdrive, searing the command into his base code. It hurt and Blitzwing squeezed his optics closed until it was over, the pain disappearing as if it had never been there.

“Now that that’s done,” Megatron said, standing up, “let’s see how well it works. Stand up, Blitzwing.”

Blitzwing’s entire body protested movement but he eventually got to his feet, feeling like he should be shaking in fear or rage or something, but he wasn’t, and it scared him. Megatron nodded, obviously pleased.

“Very good. Very good indeed. Now, I have one last base command for you before I unleash you upon Cybertron.” Megatron was behind his desk again, and when he told Blitzwing to come closer, the Seeker did.

“You are free to converse with others, free to do as you please, with one exception. You are to tell no one about your new coding. You are forbidden from mentioning it or the fact that it was me who had it installed, do you understand me?”

Blitzwing gave a small twitch before nodding, refusing to say anything. Megatron was up and clamping down on his neck cables before he could even think about moving. Everything in him was screaming at him to fight back, but he did nothing more than sink to his knees, hoping it would alleviate the pain.

“I didn’t hear you.” Megatron growled, applying pressure until Blitzwing finally made a noise of pain.

“I understand.” Blitzwing panted. He wanted to scream. He wanted to transform and fly out of Megatron’s office, find refuge somewhere far away from the other bot. Frag, he’d go find the Autobots if he had to, but he hadn’t been told he could leave yet. He was now stuck following Megatron and his orders for the rest of his life.

This wasn’t what he wanted. This was not how he had imagined his life going, becoming a slave to a bot that he thought was the leader they all needed, but who had turned out to actually be an insane radical with an ego twenty times the size of Cybertron.

“You are to leave now,” Megatron said in his audial, “and go to the labs. Tell them I sent you to be a candidate for the triple changer program. You will follow instructions, and you will allow them to upgrade you. Say you understand.”

“I understand.” Blitzwing said again, his tanks churning again but somehow not purging themselves.

“Go now.” Megatron said and Blitzwing obeyed.

He entered the underground labs and several medic bots stared at him, having no doubt heard about what had been done to him. He ignored their wide optics.

“I have been sent by Lord Megatron to be a candidate for the triple changer upgrade, which is to be done immediately.”

“Well well. This is interesting.” A smooth female voice said. Blitzwing glared at Blackarachnia, Megatron’s favorite ‘mad scientist’ and lover of experimenting on bots.

“Spare me your drivel, Blackarachnia, and just give me the upgrade.” He snapped.

The medic bots began preparing a med bed, asking him to lie down on his back (and to mind his wings). When they instructed him to turn his head so they could reach his medical port, his first instinct was to tell them no. He knew he was damaged. He could feel the dull throb in the back of his helm, feel the way it pulled and creaked as he moved. However, Megatron had ordered him to upgrade, and he couldn’t refuse.

He turned his head, ashamed of the number of gasps and ‘Oh my primus’s he heard, including Blackarachnia’s low whistle.

“Please, can we proceed?” He said waspishly. One of the less skittish bots stepped up, apologizing profusely as he plugged into Blitzwing, apologizing again when Blitzwing didn’t stop the sharp intake of air in pain, his whole frame jerking.

“You know most bots don’t survive the procedure, don’t you?” Blackarachnia asked him after explaining what was going to be done. Blitzwing nodded. He felt sick knowing that he hoped he wouldn’t survive either, that something would go wrong and they’d have to offline him.

“See you on the other side.” Blackarachnia crooned. Blitzwing’s system was flooded with pleasant warmth, nothing like the burning heat of the slave coding, and he felt himself slip into a deep recharge state…

When he awoke several megacycles later, he knew right away that something had indeed gone wrong. His processor was killing him, the medic bots were beside themselves, whispering hurriedly, and Blackarachnia was nowhere to be found. The medics instantly stopped chattering when they noticed he was awake.

“Blitzwing, are you with us?” One of the bigger bots asked him, looking up at him warily. A few of them made worried noises when he started to sit up. It was a lot harder than he remembered. He felt heavier and when he lifted a servo to put it to his helm, he stopped, getting a good look at himself in the mirror opposite of his bed.

He was still him, that wasn’t difficult to see, but he was bigger, bulkier. His shoulders had larger pieces of armor on them, which he quickly discovered were being used to house a myriad of explosive rounds. Further observation showed him that he now hosted twin cannons on his back between his wings, and his thin legs now had huge tire treads covering their lower half. Forced upgrade or not, he couldn’t deny how good he looked now.

“What is my new second alt mode?” He questioned. One of the medics glanced at the medical screen, scanning through code Blitzwing didn’t know how to read, before humming.

“Looks like your system decided on a tank. A very powerful model of tank.”

Blitzwing raised an optic ridge. How interesting. Physical examination aside, he still feel funny. He should be more excited than he was, but he just… couldn’t find the feeling. It was like it was out of his reach.

“Uhm, Blitzwing, there are some things you should know… something happened while we were operating and—“

Blitzwing stopped the bot with a raise of his servo when his comm came to life, his audials filled with Starscream’s voice.

_“Blitzwing! We need you up top! Blasted Autbots are attacking! Drop whatever you’re doing and hurry the frag up here!”_

On a separate channel, Blackarachnia’s voice came through.

_“Let’s see how those new upgrades treat you.”_

Something in her voice sounded uneasy, like she knew something that he didn’t, and briefly his processor recalled what the medic bot had started to say to him, but Blitzwing didn’t have any more time to think about it before the comm went dead. He was out the door before the medic bots could stop him. As he ran, he quickly got used to his larger frame, enjoying the new level of power he felt coursing through his body.

The wrongness Blitzwing was feeling only increased when he started fighting. Something was pressing at the back of his processor, distracting him. Eventually it got to be too much and during a split second of distraction, an Autobot took him down. With the other bot on top of him, Blitzwing felt a strange sensation and his face… _spun_. It actually changed and a new voice, or rather a variation of his own voice, was coming from his vocalizer.

“Autobot scum! I will crush you!” He yelled at the Autobot, doing just that nanokliks later when he threw the bot off and stepped on his helm, crushing it and watching energon spread from under his pede. The foreign sensation came back and his face spun again, yet another version of his voice laughing gleefully.

“Oh, I could used to this! Such pretty colors ahahaha! I could use it for battle paint!”

With some concentration, he got his original face back and he retreated, hiding behind a rock formation and shaking. As he held his helm in his servos, he still didn’t feel anything close panic, only a small blip of fear. He felt empty… Cold. What had they done to him?

[][][][][]

Blitzwing was almost thrown off balance by Bumblebee hugging him tight around his neck again, shaking in his arms. He held the smaller bot close, enjoying how he could feel Bumblebee’s engine purring against his chassis, even if it was purring in distress. Ratchet vented heavily, rubbing a servo over his face.

“Primus… I knew Megatron was fragged in the processor, but that… that’s beyond anything I’ve ever heard of…”

Blitzwing said nothing, becoming concerned with the amount of shaking coming from Bumblebee. Ratchet shook his head, still looking spooked.

“Well, I’m going to go tell Prime that the patch worked, and with your permission I’d like to tell him a bit of your story, just to help get him up to speed.” Blitzwing nodded his consent, adjusting his grip on Bumblebee when the smaller bot finally released his neck, only to put their helms together with his optics closed tight.

Ratchet left, sensing that Bumblebee had a few things to say that weren’t any of his business, telling Blitzwing to try and rest a bit. When the sick bay doors closed, Bumblebee finally opened his optics, the blue in them bright with pain. Blitzwing gently eased him back so he could look at him better, not liking the sad expression at all.

“Did my story trouble you that much?” He asked softly, putting a servo to Bumblebee’s cheek plate, or rather the entire side of his helm, given the size of his servos. Bumblebee immediately pressed into the touch, holding Blitzwing’s servo there with his own.

“I can’t believe they did all that to you.” Bumblebee’s vocalizer was having trouble keeping the static out of his voice, a clear sign of how upset he was, so Blitzwing smiled and kissed him gently.

“It’s like I told you before.” He said. “You can’t change the past. It happened already.”

“Don’t get philosophical with me.” Bumblebee mumbled, his optics half closed as he looked at the Decepticon. Blitzwing chuckled and shifted away from Bumblebee, lying down on the med bed. It was getting dark again and he could do with a good recharge, and if he was honest, having a certain warm minibot lying on his chassis sounded like a good way to start.

His engines roared a little when Bumblebee crawled up the length of his body, brushing against him before curling under his arm and resting his helm on Blitzwing’s chassis. A small servo reached out and traced over the lines of his Decepticon symbol.

“Ratchet’s gonna be annoyed if we recharge in here.” Bumblebee said softly. Blitzwing smiled.

“Something tells me he’s going to be annoyed no matter what happens. He’s quite cranky, isn’t he.”

Bumblebee chuckled.

“Crankiest bot I know.”

Blitzwing’s digits teased down Bumblebee’s back strut, making the smaller bot press closer to him. He slowly dragged the digits back up the strut, pleased when Bumblebee automatically arched with the motion. Bumblebee had his optics closed but he was smiling, so Blitzwing let his servo smooth back down the length of the other bot’s back before letting it stop on his hip, holding him tight.

Bumblebee’s servo tightened into a half fist on Blitzwing’s chassis, and the Decepticon didn’t have to turn up his audials to hear the little hum of Bumblebee’s fans. He chuckled and pressed a digit against the yellow bot’s hip struts, delighting in the sharp intake he heard.

“Are you sensitive there?” He asked. Bumblebee finally opened his optics half way, the gentle look from earlier replaced by something much more heated.

“A little…” The Autobot mumbled, his engine purring happily.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Blitzwing said as he rubbed his digit against Bumblebee’s hip once more (Bumblebee’s vocalizer hitched) before forcing himself to stop. He could have kept going, pushed it into unknown territory, but he imagined what Ratchet would do to them, and decided it was unwise. The Decepticon let his optics close as Bumblebee nuzzled against his chassis, the yellow bot’s fans still on but starting to slow down, and they both slipped into recharge.

[][][][][]

“You wake them up.”

“Why should I have to be the one to do it?”

Bulkhead and Prowl whispered back and forth as they peered through the sick bay doors, seeing Bumblebee and Blitzwing curled together. It was getting to be early morning, well past when Bumblebee was usually awake, so Prime had sent them to get the two bots.

By now, the complicated relationship between Bumblebee and Blitzwing had been shared with the rest of the Autobots and Sari, so seeing Blitzwing holding Bumblebee tight to his side like someone might steal him away wasn’t that much of a surprise.

There was only one problem with Prime’s plan: neither Autobot wanted to wake up a recharging Decepticon, especially not one like Blitzwing.

They apparently took too long debating who would actually go in because Prime came looking for them. Bulkhead stumbled over some excuses before Optimus rolled his optics and sighed.

“Fine, I’LL go wake them. You two go on patrol.”

The younger bots departed and Optimus squared his shoulders, opening the bay doors all the way. The bots on the med bed didn’t move, the combined noise of Blitzwing’s jet engines and Bumblebee’s solitary engine idling making for a peaceful atmosphere.

“Are you two going to get up any time this solar cycle—“

Optimus fell back when Blitzwing lurched into the sitting position, leveling his cannons at the Autobot. Doing so dumped Bumblebee on the ground, making him yell in surprise. He looked around, extremely confused, and saw Blitzwing aiming weapons at his boss bot… weapons that were charging to fire.

“Blitzwing no!” He yelled, sticking out a servo and jumping in front of Optimus, who had pulled his axe out and closed his facemask.

“Prime wait!” He stuck his other servo out towards Optimus. “Ratchet said he might take a while to get his systems in order. Maybe he’s still out of it.”

Blitzwing’s optics did look a little dull, like he was still partially in recharge. He didn’t even look like he was looking at Optimus, rather like he was staring through him. Bumblebee approached him, saying his name softly in question, waiting and hoping for a reaction.

Finally Blitzwing’s optics brightened and he blinked a few times, staring down at Bumblebee in confusion a nanoklik before he grabbed him, holding him tight to his chassis. He had Bumblebee in such a tight grip that the younger bot squeaked in protest, ceasing his struggling when he realized that Blitzwing’s frame was shaking.

Optimus had gotten to his pedes, still watching Blitzwing warily with his mask closed, while Bumblebee tried to pull back. It took a few tries before Blitzwing let him. The Decepticon looked haunted but he finally got his systems back in order enough to look at Optimus, noticing the defensive stance the Autobot had taken.

“I… don't know what happened.” He said hesitantly, his optics fluttering like they were still trying to focus.

“Were you still dreaming or something?” Bumblebee asked, making sure Blitzwing was looking at him and not at Prime. Seeing Optimus holding his battle-axe and glaring at him probably wasn’t very helpful.

“I think so… I don’t remember what happened.” He looked at Optimus, who lowered his axe.

“My apologies, Optimus Prime.” His tone was completely different from when he spoke to Bumblebee. “My systems must still be adjusting and they inadvertently viewed you as a threat.”

Optimus’s mask snapped back and he sighed.

“I think it’s safe to say we’re all adjusting at this point. Come into the main room whenever you’re ready.”

As soon as Optimus had left, Blitzwing leaned against Bumblebee again, pressing his face into Bumblebee’s neck like he had the day before.

“Blitzwing…?”

“He had you.”

Bumblebee rubbed a servo over Blitzwing’s shoulder as he kept talking.

“Megatron had you. He was hurting you and… I couldn’t do anything about it. It was like that code was still there… I couldn’t stop him.”

It was weird feeling Blitzwing’s face change against his neck.

“I was weak. I should have been able to do something.” Rage said, and it was even weirder to hear him not talk about crushing someone. Bumblebee forced Blitzwing to look at him so he could kiss Rage’s visor, smiling at him until he calmed and Icy came back.

“Megatron’s never gonna get me. You know why?” He put their helms together, smiling even more when Blitzwing’s servos pressed him closer and his optics closed.

“Because you’d offline him if he even got near me.”

Blitzwing vented deeply and hummed.

“Without the coding, it is entirely possible that I could match his strength.”

Bumblebee imagined Blitzwing facing down Megatron, staring him right in the face and fighting him because he had tried to hurt Bumblebee, and his spark jumped. He slanted their helms and put their dermas together, wrapping his arms around Blitzwing’s neck again.

The Decepticon was pleasantly surprised and eagerly kissed back, his servos flat against Bumblebee’s back struts. He was even more surprised when Bumblebee slid himself into Blitzwing’s lap, kneeling on his thighs to better reach his mouth. When their chassis scraped together sensually, Blitzwing forced himself to stop, tightening his grip on the eager Autobot and pulling him away.

“We should join your team mates in the main room.” He said quietly, and Bumblebee frowned at him.

“You keep making me stop.” The yellow bot placed a small servo under Blitzwing’s chin and cocked his helm.

“What are you afraid of?”

Blitzwing didn’t get a chance to answer before an alarm sounded through the plant. Bumblebee kissed him one more time before hopping down off the med bed and running into the main room. After a small hesitation, Blitzwing followed, standing a little ways back from the Autobots and Sari.

“Looks like we’ve got some major Decepticon activity downtown.” Optimus said, watching the dots blip on the screen.

“It’s Lugnut and Lord Megatron.” Blitzwing spoke up, drawing everyone’s attention. “I’ve been gone too long. They’re looking for me.”

The Autobots looked troubled. Blitzwing was still a Decepticon, and if Megatron and Lugnut were looking for him, they now had to consider what to do with him. If they left him at the plant, they ran a huge risk of its location being discovered. If they brought him with them, who knew what could happen?

Optimus would bet that Blitzwing wouldn’t do anything stupid, considering his developing relationship with Bumblebee, but he also didn’t trust him enough to let him near his fellow Decepticons.

“What’s the plan, boss bot?” Bulkhead asked. Optimus looked over at Blitzwing, who was watching him carefully. He then looked at Ratchet, who shrugged. The silence almost became uncomfortable until Blitzwing spoke again.

“If it would make you feel better, I’m willing to let you put the stasis cuffs back on and lock me up if you must.”

Bumblebee shot him an alarmed look, but the big bot ignored him in favor of watching Optimus and Ratchet. To everyone’s surprise, Prowl spoke before they did.

“I say we bring him with us.”

Optimus looked to Prowl in surprise as Sari spoke up.

“I second that! We could use him as bait and draw Megatron and bolts-for-brains’ attention.” She grinned. Blitzwing looked down at her, making her step back and partially hide behind Bulkhead. Optimus raised an optic ridge, glancing at Ratchet.

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. I mean we did promise to give him to the Elite Guard.”

“Who knows when the Elite Guard will get here?” Prowl said, arms over his chassis looking cool as ever. “Could be several more orns yet.”

“Prowl has a point, Prime.” Ratchet chimed in. Bumblebee stepped into the conversation, motioning to Blitzwing.

“Anyone else thinking we should ask the bot in question what he wants to do?” He said loudly, making Blitzwing smirk, startling several of the other bots that had never seen him do such a thing.

“Bumblebee’s got a point as well.” Ratchet said. “Blitzwing?” He looked up at the Decepticon, who shrugged.

“I have no official say here.” He said. “But if I did, I would agree. It is a good idea. Megatron doesn’t like me being away from him for too long. I am one of his greatest weapons and he will tear this city apart just to get his servos on me.”

“If you’re Megatron’s greatest weapon, then how is it every time we meet up, you get your skidplates kicked?” Sari piped up, stepping out from behind Bulkhead. Blitzwing considered her, discovering that she was a techno-organic. He wanted to dislike her on principle, considering his previous experiences with techno-organics, but she seemed different from Blackarachnia.

“When I became a triple-changer, my strength doubled due to my additional alt mode. After I took apart an entire Autobot scout team by myself, Megatron ordered me to only use half my strength from then on. I think the fact that I’m stronger than him made Megatron nervous.”

Ratchet looked thoughtful.

“So, now that your code is gone…”

Blitzwing’s dark smile made Sari step back again.

“Now that order no longer stands.” He said, his voice low. Bumblebee crossed his arms over his chassis in an attempt to hush the click of his fans turning on. Looks like he had a thing for voices as well as long glossas… Lucky for him, Optimus was speaking again and his voice covered the sound.

“Regardless of that, I’m not expecting you to fight with us. But if we take you with us, can we trust you not to turn on us?” He asked. Blitzwing raised an optic ridge, his voice returning to its normal pitch.

“You have my word. Things have changed drastically for me.” He looked at Bumblebee this time, his expression softening. “And I must say, I rather like the change.”

The yellow bot averted his optics but not before smiling shyly.

“I can’t be forced to attack you. Megatron holds no power over me anymore.”

Optimus nodded at him.

“Then everyone get ready. We’re leaving shortly.”

[][][][][]

Optimus told Blitzwing to hang back and keep out of sight. Blitzwing had agreed with one exception. If he felt he needed to step in, he would, consequences be fragged. Optimus knew he really meant that if Bumblebee was in trouble, he’d step in, but the Autobot agreed anyway.

Blitzwing sat perched on top of a skyscraper, watching the Autobots fight with Megatron and Lugnut. Every molecule of his being was telling him to go down and join the fight, to get his servos on Megatron and get back at him for everything he did, because he could now, but Blitzwing had given Optimus Prime his word that he would stay put, and Decepticon or not, giving his word to a Prime meant something to him.

So he was forced to stand by and just observe, making sure that he was hidden.

Things went as they usually did; the Autobots got their afts kicked, and Lugnut went on about his ‘supreme and glorious’ leader (Blitzwing rolled his optics every time he did), and Megatron looked smug as ever. The more Blitzwing watched his fellow Decepticons fight, the more he realized how much he really hated them. Not even just them, he hated all of it. The fighting, the being split into two groups, the animosity that came from what symbol you chose to wear on your frame, if you even chose.

He was no pacifist, but he had hated the war from the start, and the fact that it never actually ended really got under his chest plates. Megatron never was good at letting things go.

His attention was caught when he saw Megatron snag Bumblebee by his leg and sling him into a building, crushing the windows in and sending debris flying. Blitzwing’s engine roared and he leapt off the building, cracking the concrete when he landed in front of Megatron. His pistons hissed as he stood upright, keeping himself between Megatron and Bumblebee, who was groaning as he walked out of the building. The rest of the bots noticed his arrival, and for a few nanokliks, the fighting stopped as Megatron grinned at him.

“Blitzwing, so nice to see you again. I heard you had some Autobot trouble, so Lugnut and I came to intervene.”

Blitzwing didn’t answer, his expression carefully blank, something that would be familiar to Megatron. He could only hope that the rest of the Autobots would have enough tact to remain silent as well.

“Something the matter, Blitzwing?” Megatron’s voice was smooth and on instinct Blitzwing shook his head.

“Not at all. As you can see, I’m fine.”

“Well in that case, let’s dispose of the rubbish and move on.”

Megatron turned away and Blitzwing braced himself for what he was about to do.

“No.” He said flatly. Megatron went still, turning back around and staring at him.

“I beg your pardon?” He said slowly. Blitzwing raised his chin and crossed his arms, knowing that he looked very much like a petulant sparkling and not caring.

“I said no.”

The buildings could have started falling down around them and no one would have uttered a syllable. Even Lugnut had fallen quiet, although he did still have his servo wrapped around Prowl in a crushing fist.

“You’re not allowed to say no.” Megatron said, his voice turning venomous as he stared down the other Decepticon. Blitzwing uncrossed his arms.

“Why? Because you say so?” He said coolly, silently delighting in the way Megatron’s optics lit up in fury.

“Because you are programmed to obey without question!” Megatron roared. Blitzwing cocked his helm, looking thoughtful.

“Funny little thing, slave coding. As it would turn out, there is a way to deactivate it, and what’s even more amusing,” he let a smile form, not missing the way Megatron shifted his weight away, “is that the Autobots’ medic knows how to do it.”

“Impossible.” Megatron hissed at him.

“The proof is staring you in the face.” He dared to step closer to the Decepticon warlord.

“You have no control over me anymore.”

He had been anticipating the attack, so when Megatron’s fist crashed into his helm, sending him sprawling, it didn’t hurt as bad as it could have hurt. The other Decepticon threw himself at Blitzwing and they locked servos with Megatron pushing down on Blitzwing, while Blitzwing shoved his sharp knee up into Megatron’s chassis, denting the armor covering his spark chamber.

It would be so easy… just a little more pressure with a quick push and Blitzwing could kill Megatron with his own armor. His split second of thought got him another punch to the face, snapping his head to the side and making him taste energon. He swung his opposite elbow up, cracking Megatron across the faceplates and throwing him off balance enough for Blitzwing to shove him away.

When Megatron rolled onto his side to get up, that’s when Blitzwing pounced on him. Wrenching Megatron’s left arm up, Blitzwing stuck his knee in Megatron’s back and put a servo against his shoulder joint, applying pressure while pulling the limb up. He only stopped when Megatron shouted in pain and the joint groaned dangerously.

At this point, the Autobots had Lugnut locked in a pair of stasis cuffs, and while he had protested initially, even he was watching as Blitzwing bent down next to Megatron’s audial and began talking, his voice low but easily heard in the silence.

“You took away my freedom. All those stellar cycles of doing whatever you told me, never being allowed to speak about what had happened to me.” He tightened his grip on Megatron’s wrist, hearing the metal creak under the pressure.

“Starscream got me to join the Decepticons, and at first, I could see the appeal, but as time wore on, I began to really wonder if I had to be on a side at all. Why not just let you fools destroy each other, you Autobots and Decepticons, so self-righteous in thinking you could save our race through war.”

Every bot in the immediate vicinity could hear Blitzwing speaking, and although it hurt Bumblebee to hear Blitzwing speak so poorly of what he considered his family, the big bot had a point. When had war ever solved _anything_? The answer was the same for any intelligent race; it hadn’t.

Blitzwing was getting angry now, his expression turning venomous but his face remaining the same.

“And then you put that coding in my system, and got Blackarachnia to upgrade me to this… this new state.” He leaned closer, tweaking Megatron’s arm and making him flinch.

“I may have lost a bit of my sanity and control, but I gained other helpful things. Unfortunately for me however, you forbade me to use them to my full potential. It’s because I scared you, isn’t it. Because you knew that without the coding, I’d end up doing _this_ ,” he pulled the arm again, and the armor surrounding the shoulder joint split down the middle, making Megatron roar in pain, “to you. You knew I’d get back at you for destroying everything that I was… and you know what?”

His dangerous smile made Bumblebee take a step forward, spark pulsing with anxiety.

“Blitzwing wait—“ The yellow bot said, stopping short when Blitzwing spoke again.

“You were right to be afraid.”

With a roar that covered up Bumblebee’s surprised cry, Blitzwing pulled back on Megatron’s arm, the whole thing disconnecting from Megatron’s shoulder with a snap and many splintered pieces, pistons and cables hanging from the empty joint, energon starting to pour from all the broken parts.

In all their years fighting, the Autobots had never heard Megatron make such a sound of pain when Blitzwing dug his digits into the open wound, exposing more sparking cables and drawing more energon, twisting them maliciously and reducing Megatron’s vocalizer to nothing as Blitzwing pulled components out and threw them on the ground.

“Blitzwing STOP!” Bumblebee shouted, running over to the Decepticon and pulling on his arm. Blitzwing’s face was nothing but cold fury, his optics bright and glowing, his mouth set in a hard line.

“Stop, enough!” Bumblebee pleaded, terrified of the bot at the moment. He couldn’t believe that he was trying to stop Blitzwing from offlining Megatron, but this all felt wrong to him, and Optimus looked like he was about to step in and stop Blitzwing by any means necessary.

“Please. Stop…” He said, pressing his helm against Blitzwing’s shoulder, wrapping his arms around Blitzwing’s waist and squeezing him. The Decepticon’s whole frame was heated from the nitrous fluid that was no doubt pumping through his fuel lines.

Finally Blitzwing stopped, venting harshly and keeping his knee on Megatron’s back, although it was hardly necessary. Megatron looked like he wasn’t going to move for several more megacycles, his optics flickering and his fans cycling in an attempt to cool his systems that were no doubt in danger of crashing.

It took Blitzwing a second to come back to himself, his faces finally cycling through twice, none of them saying anything, before coming to rest on his default face once more.

“You may release Lugnut now.” His voice was extremely calm considering what he had just done. “You’re not going to do anything, are you Lugnut.”

He turned his steely gaze on the other Decepticon, who was staring at him and looking grateful that he was as far from Blitzwing as he was. Everyone expected Optimus to just grab another pair of cuffs and lock up the other obviously deranged Decepticon, agreements be fragged, but to their surprise, he only hesitated slightly before releasing Lugnut, who did little more than stand and continue to watch Blitzwing.

Blitzwing picked up Megatron’s arm and threw it to Lugnut nonchalantly as he stood up, dislodging Bumblebee from his waist.

“If I were you,” Blitzwing drawled, “I’d take our injured Master and go, before I decide to get nasty again.”

The surprises kept coming as Lugnut caught the arm and transformed, dropping a cable support net and pulley. With a little pushing, he got Megatron on the net, and hefted him into the air, a trail of energon dropping from the sky as they fled.

When the attacking Decepticons were out of sight, Blitzwing turned to Optimus and extended his wrists, the servo and arm that he had used to mangle Megatron still covered in energon.

“I’m more than certain that I have violated your moral code, so I will allow myself to be taken back into custody and punished as you see fit.”

Bumblebee began to protest, but Blitzwing saying his name tiredly stopped him short and reduced whatever he was going to say to a small bit of static. He could only watch as Optimus approached Blitzwing, cuffs in hand. His anxiety was short lived however when Optimus simply put the cuffs in subspace, shaking his helm.

“I may not condone your actions, Blitzwing, but to put it bluntly, Megatron had it coming.”

Bumblebee stared at the Prime, surprised at his leader’s change of tone, but it wasn’t like he disagreed. If someone had put slave coding in his system and performed experiments on him, he’d want some revenge too.

Blitzwing was staring at Optimus in much of the same manner, his servos slowly lowering to his sides.

“I… appreciate your understanding, Optimus Prime.” Blitzwing said hesitantly, unsure of whether Optimus was letting him go or not. Optimus nodded to him, looking around at the rest of his team.

“They got away today, but I feel like we did some good regardless. Let’s go home, Autobots.”

Everyone started to leave, but Bumblebee didn’t move any further than a few steps, coming to stand next to Blitzwing.

“But… what about Blitzwing?” He said softly, making the other Autobots pause. The Decepticon looked down at him in surprise as Bumblebee put his servo on his chassis. He hadn’t expected Bumblebee to still want him after what he had just done.

“We still have to give him to the Elite Guard, don’t we…” Bumblebee said dejectedly. Optimus looked conflicted and Prowl put a servo on his shoulder, smiling.

“Not if something happened to him. No point in handing over an offline bot, is there?”

Bumblebee stared at the ninja, his spark jumping, and he found himself moving to stand in front of Blitzwing, even if he did little more than block the Decepticon’s legs and waist. Prowl chuckled quietly.

“I’m not saying we offline him, Bumblebee, relax.” Prowl soothed. “I’m saying we could just tell the Elite Guard that there was an accident, and that Blitzwing is no longer with us.”

“Ratchet…?” Optimus said, looking at the old bot. Ratchet shrugged.

“Look, Prime. Bumblebee isn’t going to let Sentinel Prime take Blitzwing away, and I’d like to prevent Bumblebee from getting arrested too if I can help it. If that means lying a little bit and harboring a Decepticon with ambiguous allegiances in the plant for a while, well…” He trailed off and shrugged. Optimus still looked a little uncomfortable, but then he looked at Bumblebee and Blitzwing again.

The pair was no longer focused on the other bots. Bumblebee had a rag in his servo and was gently wiping the energon from Blitzwing’s arm. Blitzwing looked down at him fondly before kneeling on the pavement so Bumblebee could reach easier. The smaller bot wiped a splatter of energon from Blitzwing’s faceplates and Blitzwing smiled. He actually smiled and Optimus felt his spark pulse sharply.

Blitzwing was looking at Bumblebee like he was the AllSpark himself, nothing but adoration in his optics. It was a strange look on the Decepticon, but Bumblebee saw nothing strange about it, smiling back and putting their helms together. His smile twitched wider as he closed his optics, and Blitzwing’s optics followed suit. When Optimus tweaked his audial settings a bit, he could hear Bumblebee’s engine idling contently in time with the steady purr of Blitzwing’s jet engine.

Happiness. That’s what he was looking at… and it warmed his spark. An Autobot and a Decepticon, not just getting along but also being happy because of one another. That kind of relationship was what they had been hoping for from the beginning. Autobots and Decepticons getting along. Optimus couldn’t break that apart, not when it was so significant, not when it meant so much to Bumblebee. Optimus sighed.

“So Blitzwing,” he said, waiting until Blitzwing turned from Bumblebee to look at him, “how exactly did you go offline again?”

[][][][][]

“I’m sorry, _what_ did you just say?” Sentinel exclaimed, getting in Optimus’s face. The smaller Prime didn't back down.

“I said Blitzwing went offline a few cycles ago. Seems Megatron had a code installed in all his Decepticons that acted like a fail safe. A way of keeping information safe if they got captured and there was no hope of escape.”

“You’re trying to tell me he offlined himself?” Sentinel said, squinting in suspicion.

“Humans used to do the same thing a few hundred years ago. It’s called a cyanide pill. Poison that would kill you in under 20 seconds.” Sari spoke up, raising an eyebrow when Sentinel glared at her.

“But Blitzwing wasn’t a human.” Jazz said, looking confused. “It’s not like a Decepticon to offline himself.”

“Well he did. Probably under orders from Megatron.” Bumblebee said. “Or Megatron himself activated it. Who knows?” He shrugged. Sentinel returned his glare to Optimus.

“I don’t believe you.” He hissed. “Show me a body and I might change my mind.”

“You think we still have the body of an offline Decepticon lying around here?” Ratchet snorted, crossing his arms. “We sent him to the scrap heap as soon as possible. He’s probably part of some crunched up cube of garbage now.”

Sentinel looked livid so Jazz stepped in again.

“Look guys, we came here to pick up a ‘Con, and it looks like SP ain’t leaving until we’ve got a ‘Con to take with us. So how are we gonna swing this?”

Optimus didn’t let his creeping nervousness show as Bulkhead shrugged.

“I don’t know,” the green mech said, “I mean it’s not like we can just go to Megatron’s hideout and grab another Decepticon for you. We don’t even know where his hideout is…”

“Look, Sentinel.” Optimus said. “We weren’t prepared for this. I had no idea what lengths the Decepticons would go to in order to keep themselves protected, but now we know. There’s nothing we can do about it now.”

The two Primes stared each other down until Prowl and Jazz got between them.

“Let’s just go, Sentinel.” Jazz said, hand against the bigger bot’s chassis. “We’ll report back to Ultra Magnus and he can decide what to do next.”

Sentinel bared his dentae and stormed away, stomping through the plant. Jazz sighed and smiled at Optimus.

“Be seeing you around, OP. Later, Prowl.” He said, following Sentinel out. When the two Elite Guard bots had left, everyone let loose a collective sigh of relief.

“That was a close one.” Bulkhead said. Optimus walked over to the plant’s main console and pressed a button, unlocking the basement lift, which disappeared and then reappeared with Blitzwing atop it.

“We’re in the clear for now.” Optimus said to him. “There’s no telling if they’ll come back or not, so until we figure it out, you’ll just have to lay low.”

Blitzwing nodded.

“Understood.”

[][][][][]

After Bumblebee had driven Sari home that evening (she still enjoyed riding with him sometimes, despite her new ability to fly), he went in search of Blitzwing, knowing he’d probably be in the basement. It was the most secure location in the plant, not to mention familiar to him.

Blitzwing was walking around the basement when Bumblebee stepped off the lift, taking in his surroundings. Even though he had spent the better part of the last couple months down there, he had never really looked around. He paused in his observances when he heard Bumblebee approach.

“Are you really going to stay down here?” Bumblebee asked, cocking his helm at the bigger bot. Blitzwing cast a glance around the space.

“Where would I stay if not here?” He asked, turning back to see Bumblebee fidgeting and looking down at his pedes.

“W-well… you could stay with me. You know, in my room…” Bumblebee mumbled. Blitzwing gently lifted his chin with a digit, looking at him.

“You think so? What would your Autobot team mates think?”

Bumblebee quirked an optic ridge at him.

“Does it matter? It’s not like they don’t know about us.”

Blitzwing smiled down at Bumblebee, his optics at half-mast with amusement.

“And what are we?” He asked, delighting in the surprised beep Bumblebee’s systems made before the yellow bot recovered.

“Uh… We’re uh…” He trailed off as Blitzwing leaned down further and kissed him, curling a servo around the back of his helm and holding him tight. Bumblebee sucked air into his vents slowly, his frame starting to heat almost instantly. His servos went to Blitzwing’s face and held him close, remaining there when Blitzwing backed off.

“I didn’t hear your answer.” The Decepticon purred. Bumblebee chuckled and put their helms together.

“We are whatever the frag we are, and I don't care what everyone else has to say about it.”

“An acceptable answer.” Blitzwing said playfully, kissing Bumblebee again. This time he didn’t pull away, continuing to the kiss the smaller bot senseless until he heard the telltale click of his fans.

Bumblebee expected Blitzwing to stop there like he always did, so when the bigger bot suddenly picked him up and held him tight to his chassis, nibbling at his sensitive neck cords, he definitely squeaked a little. He quickly relaxed, wrapping his arms around Blitzwing’s neck and letting his engine idle. Blitzwing was gently biting on energon lines and soothing them with a flick of his glossa, and Bumblebee soon felt his body begin to melt.

As Blitzwing shifted his attention to the other side of Bumblebee’s neck, his processor was cycling rather quickly. Part of him was nervous about taking his relationship with Bumblebee to the next level. Were they ready for it? Was Bumblebee ready for it? The other part of him was currently looking up the command to turn on his cooling fans, because having a softly moaning minibot in his arms was doing amazing things to him.

Carefully, Blitzwing backed up until he found the edge of the bench and sat down, keeping Bumblebee close. He situated Bumblebee in his lap so his legs were dangling over the side of Blitzwing’s thighs, the perfect position for Blitzwing to cradle him close and get access to his neck cables.

Blitzwing pressed the whole flat of his glossa against Bumblebee’s neck before delving into the gaps, the sharp metallic taste of the energon flowing just beneath the surface filling his sensor net. Bumblebee sighed and let his helm tilt back, savoring the new feelings and jumps in his spark.

The pressure on his neck changed, and when Bumblebee opened his optics, he saw Random grinning at him, his long serpentine glossa lolling out of his mouth.

“You like my glossa like this. I remember.” Random giggled. Bumblebee shivered when said glossa curled around one of his horns. He groaned, not even knowing how sensitive his horns were in the first place, and clutched Blitzwing tight.

There was a deep rumble vibrating through Blitzwing’s chassis, and it took Bumblebee a few kliks to realize that it was a combination of Blitzwing’s jet engine and his fans. Listening to the much quieter hum of his own engine and fans, Bumblebee felt very small.

Blitzwing tightened the arm he had around Bumblebee’s waist and kissed him again. The feeling of smallness amplified, but Bumblebee felt safe, and not angry like he usually would feel. Nothing and nobody could touch him if he was with Blitzwing.

“You’re smiling.”

Bumblebee blinked. Blitzwing had stopped kissing him and was once again wearing his Icy face, looking at him curiously. The yellow bot chuckled.

“Oh, yeah sorry. I was thinking.” He shrugged, nuzzling his face into the space under Blitzwing’s chin. The triple changer hummed contentedly as Bumblebee continued talking.

“I’ve got this thing about being smaller than everyone else, and usually I get mad, but you… you make me feel small, and I feel safe instead of angry.”

He shifted in the Decepticon’s lap, moving so his legs were on either side of Blitzwing’s thighs. He then wrapped his arms around the bigger bot’s neck, and Blitzwing put a servo on Bumblebee’s waist. The other servo curled around the back of the minibot’s thigh, pulling him flush against Blitzwing’s body. Bumblebee’s engine revved when Blitzwing put his mouth against the yellow bot’s audial.

“We can keep going if you want.” He said quietly. He took Bumblebee’s quiet noise as a ‘yes’.

Blitzwing returned his attentions to Bumblebee’s neck, instantly hearing a little moan. He could feel how hot Bumblebee’s frame was already, and that was when something clicked into place.

Bumblebee had never done this before.

The discovery filled him up like water in a cup, and then flowed over. Bumblebee had no idea what was coming, and Blitzwing would be the first mech ever to show him. His delight showed in the low purr that started in the back of his throat, making Bumblebee shiver.

“Do you like that?” Blitzwing asked. When Bumblebee groaned and hugged his neck tighter, he purred again just to make sure. The smaller bot vented harshly against his audial and it was Blitzwing’s turn to shiver.

He didn’t want to waste any more time, so he slid his servo around from Bumblebee’s thigh and gave his interface panel a stroke. He had expected a reaction, but when Bumblebee gasped and arched against him, he couldn’t say that he wasn’t surprised. That was a better reaction than he had been hoping for, which brought another question to his mind.

“Have you ever touched yourself before?” He asked. Bumblebee leaned back, still shaking significantly, which might have had something to do with the fact that Blitzwing still had his servo pressed against his panel. He opened his optics but didn’t look at Blitzwing directly.

“W-well… not often… hardly ever actually.” Energon pooled under his faceplates, turning them light pink. Blitzwing chuckled and nuzzled Bumblebee’s cheek, his servo stroking at the panel again, making Bumblebee whine with want.

“I can show you if you’ll let me.” He said. Honestly, he was now very nervous. Bumblebee was a small bot as it was, especially when compared to Blitzwing’s frame, but if he hardly touched himself… Blitzwing was very concerned about hurting him accidentally. They would just have to be extremely cautious.

“Give me your servo.” Blitzwing instructed softly, taking Bumblebee’s shaking servo and guiding it to his panel. Bumblebee gave another tremble when he felt his own servo touch his body.

“Start slowly.” Blitzwing instructed, guiding Bumblebee so his digits traced seams and indentations, making the yellow bot’s optics flicker closed.

“Learn what your body wants, what it needs, and give it to it.”

Blitzwing kept his servo on top of Bumblebee’s, but he let the younger bot explore, only really keeping it there so he could share in the motions. Bumblebee’s digits touched previously neglected nodes and wires and he moaned, his fans kicking onto a higher setting. Blitzwing bit playfully at a neck cable, worrying it between his dentae. He then shifted his servo that was around Bumblebee’s waist to his hip, tweaking the cables there as well. He heard Bumblebee’s vocalizer jump almost a full octave, and a klik later, Blitzwing felt the first drops of warm lubricant fall on his thighs.

Bumblebee’s servo hovered over his now-open valve, seeming unsure as he looked down at it.

“… Do you want me to?” Blitzwing asked, placing small kisses on Bumblebee’s neck and shoulders. He was pleased when Bumblebee fumbled for the larger bot’s servo and said ‘please’ in his audial.

Blitzwing circled the edge of Bumblebee’s valve with a digit, holding tight to the trembling minibot in his arms.

“It’s best when you start out teasing yourself.” Blitzwing said, keeping his digit just outside of Bumblebee’s clenching valve. Bumblebee hissed and squirmed, trying to move so that Blitzwing’s digit would enter him. After another klik of playing around, Blitzwing took mercy on him, easing his digit into Bumblebee, stopping when the first joint disappeared beyond the rim.

Bumblebee keened and held onto Blitzwing tighter than before. The older bot had bigger digits than he did, and if you added in the fact that Bumblebee never touched his valve, it was easy to see why Bumblebee was already overwhelmed.

“Slowly…” Blitzwing crooned. “Just like I said before. If you rush it, the end isn’t as satisfying.”

Bumblebee opened his optics and the sheer, bright want made Blitzwing smile. He leaned in and kissed the smaller bot, wiggling his digit in further. Bumblebee slowly sucked more air into his vents, making a noise against Blitzwing’s mouth. The triple changer pressed his digit in all the way, growling when Bumblebee immediately started grinding down against the heel of his palm, trying to reach all the ultra-sensitive nodes.

Blitzwing’s spike was pressing again his panel, verging on painful, but he couldn’t release it yet. Right now, it was about Bumblebee, and Blitzwing wanted his focus 100% on him.

He stopped Bumblebee’s insistent grinding with a firm servo on his hip, chuckling when Bumblebee stopped kissing him with a whine.

“What did I say, _Liebling_?” He growled, watching as Bumblebee’s optics flashed, his processor no doubt translating the foreign word for him.

“… Slowly…” Bumblebee breathed, his engine purring happily when Blitzwing let go of him, allowing him to sink back down onto the hot servo with a shiver. Blitzwing’s digit slid into Bumblebee easily now, so he gently pressed another against the valve’s opening.

“Ready?” He said, waiting until Bumblebee verbally answered him to nudge the second digit in alongside the first, only going to the first joint again. Bumblebee immediately tensed up with a noise of discomfort.

“Don’t do that.” Blitzwing said gently, running a soothing servo down the yellow bot’s back struts.

“You might damage yourself, and I want to avoid that happening at all costs.” Blitzwing peppered Bumblebee’s faceplates with kisses, crooning soft reassurances at him until he started relaxing, the pain on his face slowly morphing into something softer. The crushing tightness around Blitzwing’s digits loosened, allowing him to carefully pull them back out, making Bumblebee moan shakily.

“That’s better now, isn’t it?” Blitzwing purred, nipping at Bumblebee’s neck cables again. Blitzwing didn’t expect Bumblebee to grab his helm and kiss him again, venting harshly against his mouth as he forced his body down further, his entire frame rattling. Blitzwing stopped him again, pulling away.

“Bumblebee, stop! I don’t want you to get hurt.” He said firmly. Bumblebee glared at him but stopped anyway, still shaking. Blitzwing pressed a kiss to his helm.

“Trust me. I know what I’m doing.” He said, holding Bumblebee steady while he continued to wiggle his digits inside the small body. When Bumblebee was fully seated on his digits, Blitzwing curled them slightly, rubbing the node sitting at the back of Bumblebee’s valve. The yellow bot instantly stiffened and groaned, pressing his face against Blitzwing’s neck.

“How do you feel?” Blitzwing chuckled, repeating the motion and listening to Bumblebee moan in his audial.

“Full.” Bumblebee gasped out as he kept shifting and moving. Blitzwing’s systems pinged a warning at him. Two digits was nothing, and it made him even more nervous than before. With a steadying vent, he kissed the side of Bumblebee’s helm.

“Let me ask you something. Do you think you could take more?”

There was a startled beep from Bumblebee before he looked at Blitzwing, his optics wide. Blitzwing met the gaze easily, noticing the worry that was starting to creep into Bumblebee’s expression.

“I said I didn’t want to hurt you…” Blitzwing said, “but if we are to continue this, I need to know you can handle more than just two digits.”

Bumblebee looked down at himself, seeing his valve already stretched wide over Blitzwing’s digits, and felt a little blip of nervousness. He quickly replaced said nervousness with forced confidence, shrugging with one shoulder and a smile.

“Won’t know until I try it.”

Blitzwing cocked an optical ridge but Bumblebee kept smiling, kissing him.

“Come on. Try me.” He purred, kissing the bigger bot again and running his glossa across Blitzwing’s bottom derma, making his intakes stutter again. Blitzwing’s armor flared, letting out some built up heat and Bumblebee’s followed suit. Blitzwing wrapped his arm around Bumblebee’s waist again, holding him tight and beginning to push a third digit into him. Bumblebee’s panting increased and he slumped against Blitzwing’s chassis, his frame trembling again.

“Primus…” He moaned, his expression tight. To Blitzwing’s surprise, he got all three of his digits inside Bumblebee without damaging him, and Bumblebee’s engine was purring loudly, his fans on their highest setting.

“See?” The yellow bot said, lifting his helm and grinning lopsided at Blitzwing. “No problem.”

Blitzwing finally smiled back, dragging his digits out slowly and reveling in the keen he got from Bumblebee. The minibot’s servos scratched down his arms, catching seams and wires and making him choke back a moan of his own.

Very slowly, Blitzwing pumped his digits in and out of Bumblebee, rubbing sensitive nodes inside him and making him moan and start to ride the digits. The sight of Bumblebee riding his digits did Blitzwing in, and before he could stop it, his panel slid back and his spike pressurized between them. Bumblebee looked down, grinning that sideways grin of his.

“I see why you asked how much I could take.” He chuckled, making Blitzwing smirk.

Blitzwing’s spike stood proudly against his stomach, dark purple biolights lining the sides and the head bright and pulsing. Upon closer inspection, one would notice small black biolights sat between the purple ones, as well as some red ones on the underside of the head.

Bumblebee reached down and petted his servo up the length, finally getting a breathy moan from the Decepticon. He continued his rocking on Blitzwing’s digits, panting still.

“You wanna get on with this before I overload just from your digits?” He asked, humming when Blitzwing leaned in and bit at his neck. Damn, Blitzwing really liked his neck.

“As hot as that would be,” Blitzwing rumbled, curling his digits, making Bumblebee curse, “if I wait any longer, my processor may fry itself.”

He eased his digits out, humming when bright blue lubricant coated his thighs and Bumblebee moaned and shivered, his valve clenching around empty air. He was stretched open so wide that Blitzwing almost couldn’t believe it. Bumblebee continued to astound him.

He took his lubricant coated fingers and fisted his spike, smiling at Bumblebee as he stared, shivering again but this time with anticipation. Blitzwing pulled him flush against his chassis so Bumblebee was hovering over his spike. Some more lubricant slid out of Bumblebee’s valve, dripping onto Blitzwing.

“Ready?” Blitzwing asked, giving a little shiver of his own when Bumblebee wrapped his servo around the spike and started to guide himself onto it.

“I was sparked ready.” Bumblebee quipped, sinking down on the spike and choking on a moan. For someone who had never interfaced before, Bumblebee was doing a good job. Blitzwing could only assume where he had learned how to do it.

Both mechs were panting harshly by the time Bumblebee was seated in Blitzwing’s lap, the Decepticon’s spike filling his entire valve, brushing every single sensor and node, including the two extremely sensitive ones sitting at the entrance and wedged in the back of his valve.

“Oh my Primus.” Bumblebee gasped, lifting and then dropping himself back down, moaning loudly. Blitzwing cursed, the extremely tight valve around his spike rubbing him in all the right places.

Bumblebee started riding Blitzwing steadily, all the anxiety bleeding away and leaving behind pure unabashed want on his face. Blitzwing’s jet engine gave a roar and his optics closed. The minibot currently grinding on his spike filled his entire processor with long-forgotten feelings, and he could do little more but keep a tight grip on Bumblebee’s hips, feeling every motion his frame made and moaning.

Bumblebee couldn’t even think straight anymore. All he could focus on was the spike inside of him, the servos gripping his hips, and the rumbling moans of the mech attached to them. If he had known that interfacing felt this good, he might have tried it sooner, but he was glad that his first time was with Blitzwing.

His overload caught him by surprise and his shriek was filled with static. His valve rippled around Blitzwing’s spike, dragging him into overload as well with a shout. Both mechs clutched at each other, electricity jumping around them as they blacked out.

Bumblebee continued to lazily rock on Blitzwing’s spike even as his overload came to an end, feeling transfluid and lubricant sliding from his valve down his thighs, getting on Blitzwing as well. They remained connected and gently touching each other, trying to stay awake but eventually slipping into recharge with Bumblebee slumped against Blitzwing’s chassis, and Blitzwing leaning against the pillar behind him, his arm wrapped around Bumblebee as always.

[][][][][]

Waking up later was significantly less pleasant than both mechs had hoped. As it would turn out, it was best if you cleaned yourself off after you interfaced, because if you didn’t, there is a huge chance that you will find yourself glued to your partner when you next wake up.

“Are you fragging KIDDING me?” Bumblebee said, trying for the third time to detach himself from Blitzwing. Blitzwing let him struggle for a moment longer before finally helping him. He overestimated his strength and accidentally sent Bumblebee flying off his lap. The yellow bot landed hard on his aft on the ground and stared up at the bigger bot. Blitzwing started to apologize but he was cut off when Bumblebee started laughing.

Watching Bumblebee laugh himself silly on the ground, still covered in various dried fluids, Blitzwing couldn’t help but laugh as well. The sound of his own laugh was foreign to him, but that didn’t stop him. He got up and scooped Bumblebee into his arms, carrying him over to the wash rack in the back of the basement.

They both stood under the spray, letting the water soften the dried gunk on their frames before they scrubbed it off. Blitzwing purred without thinking when Bumblebee scraped some transfluid off his thighs. That was _Blitzwing’s_ transfluid on him, in him. Bumblebee by all rights was now his and his alone, and the thought petted his more primal processing sensors.

“Are you happy?” He asked. Bumblebee grinned up at him, and he smiled back when Bumblebee hugged his waist.

“Yeah. Yeah I am. Happiest I’ve been in my life.”

Blitzwing petted a gentle servo over his helm before leaning down and kissing him. They turned off the wash rack and stepped out, grabbing two drying cloths from the cabinet. Blitzwing took great joy in rubbing Bumblebee down, mostly because he found out he was ticklish, and his giggles soon filled the basement. Bumblebee helped Blitzwing reach all the hard places on his frame, making sure the water didn’t seep in between his armor and make him rust or glitch.

When they were both dry, Blitzwing took his wet cloth and cleaned the bench they had been on the night before, making it seem like nothing had happened. It was a good thing they woke up when they did, because a breem or so later, the basement lift activated and Sari appeared, flouncing down the long hallway.

“Wakey wakey, bots.” She said cheerfully, smiling up at them. Bumblebee returned her smile but Blitzwing merely cocked his helm at her.

“Hey, Sari. You’re here early.” Bumblebee said. Now it was Sari’s turn to cock her head.

“Early? It’s like, one o’clock in the afternoon.”

Bumblebee blinked at her and then looked at Blitzwing, who did little more than look back at him. He was still cautious around Sari and the other Autobots, keeping any and all emotions in check.

“We uh, slept in.” Bumblebee said, which wasn’t a total lie. They did indeed end up sleeping more than usual, but Bumblebee wasn’t about to tell Sari the reason why.

“Well good thing you’re up, because I want to race again today!” She said, putting her fists on her hips. Blitzwing raised an optical ridge at her.

“You came down here to wake us up so you could engage Bumblebee in a street race?” He said, looking down at her. Sari shrugged.

“Yeah. I do it all the time. The morning is the best time to race, but since it’s the afternoon now, the streets might be a bit more crowded. Lunch time rush and all that.” She waved a hand around. Blitzwing didn’t even pretend to know what she was talking about, keeping quiet.

“One quick race, Sari.” Bumblebee said, already walking down the hallway. “Then I have to get back here because—“

“Because your boyfriend is grounded, I know.” Sari interrupted, making Bumblebee’s intake sputter.

“Boyfriend isn’t the right word.” Bumblebee mumbled, his face plates flooded with energon again. When Sari turned around and grinned at Blitzwing, the triple changer let a small smirk show. He could probably grow to like her. She seemed to enjoy seeing Bumblebee embarrassed like he did. It was understandable because it was too adorable to resist.

Blitzwing followed them to the main floor but didn’t go outside, watching Bumblebee transform and speed off with Sari on his tail. When he turned back around, the sight of Ratchet entering the room and making a beeline for him greeted him.

“Blitzwing, you got a nanoklik? I’d like to do another check up on your systems, see how they’re adjusting.”

Blitzwing nodded and followed him to the med bay, sitting down on the berth and waiting quietly. Ratchet warned him before plugging into his medical port, looking over the coding and system stats silently.

“You know…” Ratchet said after a while. “If you’d like me to, I can try and fix this port up. It’s not good to leave it damaged like this.”

Blitzwing was silent and Ratchet worried that he had overstepped his boundaries.

“… I would appreciate it.” Blitzwing said softly. Ratchet smiled and unplugged.

“I can start now if you like. I know Bumblebee is probably out with Sari right now.”

Blitzwing nodded and Ratchet got to work. By the time Bumblebee and Sari got back, with Sari boasting having finally beat Bumblebee—“By like a tiny fraction second!” Bumblebee protested—Ratchet was almost done fixing Blitzwing’s medical port as best he could.

He could now access the port with little resistance, and Blitzwing said he only felt a small pinch now. He stood and stared at Ratchet, looking uncomfortable.

“You… have done much for me… and I hardly feel I deserve it, so thank you.”

Ratchet crossed his arms over his chassis.

“I’m a medic. I fix bots, that’s what I do. Add in the fact that your problem was slave coding, and there was no way I wasn’t going to try and help you to the best of my abilities.”

Then Ratchet smiled and uncrossed his arms.

“There’s also Bumblebee to be considered in all this. The kid’s young, but I’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you.”

Blitzwing couldn’t stop his smile.

“You make him happy, and if you do that then I can’t complain. As far as I’m concerned,” Ratchet put his servo on Blitzwing’s shoulder, “you’re welcome here as long as Bumblebee is happy… and as long as you’re happy.”

Blitzwing stared at the medic. As long as _he_ was happy…? That was the first time someone had cared about his feelings in a long time (aside from Bumblebee naturally).

“Don’t look so shocked. I may be old and grumpy, but I’m not sparkless. For as long as you’ve been here, you’ve never tried to do any of us harm, and I respect you for that. You may be a Decepticon, but you’ve proved that you’re not that bad a bot, Blitzwing.”

Blitzwing felt overwhelmed by all the praise, especially since it was coming from an Autobot, but he nodded his thanks, hearing Bumblebee coming into the medical bay.

“So what’s the status, doc bot? Is Blitzwing gonna make it?” Bumblebee asked, smiling up at Blitzwing. Ratchet nodded.

“Oh yeah, he’ll be alright. All his systems are normal and I even managed to get his medical port patched up pretty good.”

Bumblebee smiled wider.

“That’s awesome! Thanks a million, Ratchet.” He grabbed Blitzwing’s servo and dragged him from the med bay, leaving Ratchet to shake his head and chuckle.

Bumblebee led Blitzwing into the main room, where Sari was sitting on the floor, waiting for Bumblebee to come back so they could watch a movie. Sari looked a little nervous when Blitzwing approached but she smiled anyway.

“You gonna watch with us?”

Blitzwing looked at the TV and then down at Bumblebee, who nodded at him reassuringly. He sat down on the couch and Bumblebee immediately snuggled against his side, lifting the bigger bot’s arm so it would drape over his shoulders.

The movie started and Blitzwing noticed that Sari kept glancing at him when she thought he wasn’t looking. It was a sign of discomfort. He decided that if he and Bumblebee were going to be together, he could at least try and be friendly with the techno-organic that Bumblebee had chosen to be his best friend.

“I heard that you bested Bumblebee today.” He said, still looking at the screen. Sari jumped and stared up at him before smiling.

“He won’t admit it but I totally beat him.”

“You did not!” Bumblebee protested from his spot pressed against Blitzwing. Blitzwing lifted an optical ridge just so.

“It’s too bad I’m stuck in here.” He then looked down at Sari. “Because while you are able to outdrive Bumblebee, I am quite confident you could not outfly me.”

Sari’s whole face lit up as she grinned.

“Oh you’re so on. As soon as it’s safe for you to leave, you and I are gonna have a dog fight.”

Blitzwing would have to ask Bumblebee what a ‘dogfight’ was later, but for now, he smiled back at her.

“I accept your challenge.”

With another grin, Sari sat back against the couch and kept watching the movie. Blitzwing looked down at Bumblebee to see him smiling at him. The yellow bot pressed his face against Blitzwing’s chassis, his engine purring happily. The Decepticon smiled down at his smaller mate (which he was, even if he hadn’t asked Bumblebee officially yet) and kissed the top of his helm.

He decided at that moment that when the movie was over, he and Bumblebee would go somewhere private and Blitzwing would ask him officially to be his sparkmate. He was so preoccupied with what he would say to Bumblebee later that he couldn't even focus on the movie. He didn’t really understand it anyway. Megatron didn’t allow his followers much time to catch up on pop culture and the like.

The movie eventually ended and Sari hung around for another hour or so before heading home, leaving the two snuggling bots on the couch alone.

“Bumblebee, can I have a word with you down in the basement?” Blitzwing said. The yellow bot blinked up at him and nodded.

“Yeah sure.” He hopped off the couch and headed towards the basement with Blitzwing following him. Once they were in the basement, Bumblebee cocked his helm expectantly.

“What’s up, Blitz?” The nickname just came out of his mouth on accident, but Blitzwing smiled at him so it couldn’t have been a bad thing.

“I wish to discuss something serious with you. We touched on the subject before, but now I feel more confident in actually talking about it.”

“It wouldn’t happen to do with spark bonding, would it?” Bumblebee said, crossing his arms over his chassis. Blitzwing took the gesture as a refusal and started to back track.

“I-if it’s too soon, we can talk about it some other—“

He was cut off when Bumblebee hugged him tight around the waist, surprising him.

“Because if it is, please Primus yes. I don’t know how much longer I can take it.”

Blitzwing stared down at him.

“Really? Why didn’t you say anything?”

Bumblebee gave him a sheepish smile.

“Same reasons as you. I thought it was too soon maybe? I mean considering that you had just gotten rid of your slave coding and we just barely started getting to know each other and—“

He stopped short when Blitzwing snatched him into a hug, holding him tight to his chassis and pressing his face into Bumblebee’s neck. The yellow bot returned the hug, squeezing Blitzwing’s neck.

“I told you that spark bonding is to be saved for the mech you want to spend your life with…” Blitzwing said softly. “You wish to spend your life with me?”

Bumblebee reached up and stroked the back of the bigger bot’s helm, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“Yes I want that. I am one hundred percent certain now.”

Blitzwing chuckled and leaned back.

“What percent were you at before?”

“Well like everything, it started at zero and went up.” Bumblebee quipped, making Blitzwing chuckle again.

“Alright let’s do it!” Bumblebee said, pressing another kiss to Blitzwing’s cheek. The Decepticon looked confused.

“Without a ceremony?”

“Frag the ceremony, we can do that later. I wanna do this right now!” Bumblebee said. He grinned and Blitzwing put their helms together.

“Alright.”

Both mechs were nervous about exposing their sparks, but Bumblebee leaned back so Blitzwing’s chassis could split, allowing his spark chamber to open. The bright ball was captivating and Bumblebee looked at it for a moment before opening his own chamber. His spark was smaller due to his equally smaller frame, but he was guessing that didn’t matter.

Blitzwing was still holding him up, so when he looked at Bumblebee for the go-ahead, all he had to do was hold Bumblebee closer. Their sparks met and merged and the result was instantaneous.

Bumblebee felt surrounded by Blitzwing’s consciousness even as he felt his own consciousness swimming around in Blitzwing’s head. He felt safe and welcome, if not a little apprehensive at all the little pockets of pain and anxiety he kept bumping into. Blitzwing still had a lot of healing to do, but Bumblebee would be there to help him.

Bumblebee’s mind was all happiness and laughter and Blitzwing basked in it, loving the feeling of Bumblebee twisting around him and somehow managing to make it feel like cuddling.

The low charge that had started between the two mechs began to build, sending Blitzwing to his knees with Bumblebee still grasped in his arms. Actual arcs of electricity began to leap off their frames and when they felt the crescendo approaching, Blitzwing kissed Bumblebee hard. The electricity flew off their body in a rippling wave, blowing out the lights in the basement and sending them into partial darkness.

When they slowly floated back into their own minds, they could still feel the lingering ghost of a feeling of the other mech. The bond had worked. Bumblebee felt the contentment and happiness radiating from Blitzwing as their spark chambers closed, projecting his own happiness back at his new sparkmate.

For a while, they said nothing, sitting in the dimmed silence and just listening to one another; the sound of their engines, the click of system components, the quiet whirr of fans keeping their frames cool.

Optimus and the rest of the Autobots charging into the basement, their weapons armed and ready, interrupted the tranquility of the moment.

“What happened?” Optimus demanded. “All the power in the plant just shut down.”

All the new bots in the room stopped and stared, taking note of the occasional spark that jumped off of Bumblebee and Blitzwing, who were still embracing each other on the floor. Ratchet was the first to put his electromagnets away, shaking his head.

“Everybody calm down, no emergency here.” He said with a hint of humor in his voice. When everyone looked at him, expecting an explanation, he in turn looked at the two younger bots.

“You two have something you’d like to share with us?”

Bumblebee gave a little embarrassed chuckle.

“Uh yeah I guess we should have said something huh. Blitzwing and I made it official. We’re sparkbonded now.”

Optimus’s optics widened as he looked around the room.

“And this happened because of that? That’s a bit unexpected.”

Ratchet laughed.

“Well if there’s one thing to be learned here, it’s this. If any of you bots decide to get a sparkmate, make sure you bond somewhere away from electricity. Bond in the wrong place and you could knock out an entire city block.”

Optimus stepped forward as Bumblebee and Blitzwing got up. The Decepticon looked uncomfortable.

“I hope this is alright with you, Optimus Prime.”

Optimus actually gave him a smile, shrugging.

“This was your and Bumblebee’s decision. Besides, even if I wasn’t okay with it, there isn’t anything I can do about it now. Plus, I’m sure Bumblebee would weld me to my berth while I recharge if I tried anything.”

Bumblebee, who had once again attached himself to his mate’s arm, glared playfully.

“Don’t even doubt that I would, boss bot.”

Optimus chuckled and then once again caught Blitzwing off-guard by extending a servo.

“I believe the phrase humans use in this kind of situation is ‘welcome to the family’.”

Blitzwing took his servo with little hesitation but cocked his head.

“I was unaware that humans could sparkbond.”

Bulkhead chimed in with a shrug.

“They can’t. They don’t have sparks, but they do something similar called ‘getting married’. They have a ceremony called a ‘wedding’ and they’re bonded for life basically.”

Blitzwing blinked.

“How intriguing.” He said, making a note in his memory core to do some research later.

“For safety reasons, we still can’t let you outside,” Optimus said, “but from this moment on, if you didn't already, consider yourself welcome here.”

Blitzwing smiled.

“Thank you. If you’d like, I can assist in getting the electricity working again.”

Optimus nodded and headed towards the back of the basement where the fuse box was kept. Blitzwing followed and Bumblebee watched him with a fond smile. Bulkhead and Prowl came up next to him while Ratchet went to help Optimus and Blitzwing.

“So you’re really happy with him?” Bulkhead said. Bumblebee nodded.

“Yeah. Yeah I am.”

“Then I’m happy for you.” Bulkhead said, (gently) patting Bumblebee on the back. “Con or not, if he makes you smile, I don’t mind.”

Prowl crossed his arms and nodded.

“Agreed. Bumblebee’s happiness ranks above prejudice, regardless of whether it’s old or new.”

Having the support of his fellow Autobots made Bumblebee’s spark whirl with joy. He felt an answering swell of joy from Blitzwing, making him smile more. Tensions would still be a little high around the plant for a while, but Bumblebee had confidence that things would turn out okay. The lights clicked back on and Blitzwing turned and shot Bumblebee a smile before crossing the room.

The bigger bot had to stoop to give Bumblebee a kiss, and all the other Autobots could see them, but somehow it was the sweetest kiss yet, even if Bulkhead made playful gagging noises behind his back. Bumblebee laughed when he heard Prowl smack Bulkhead on the arm, making him say ‘ouch’.

Yeah things would be okay in the end.


End file.
